Where the Key Belongs
by SilversunnyD
Summary: He was young when the family he knew was lost. He was still young when he found a new family. As time goes by he begins to question his past and his current placement. From there, things just seem to fall further.
1. Kingdom Key

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Fairy Tail, I do however own a Keyblade I am not afraid to use against anyone who tries to sue me.**

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><p><em>"Go on."<em>

_"You better start running, Tiger."_

_"Let the winds be at your back!"_

_"Don't die on us."_

_"..."_

_"This book should be enough for you."_

_"Fight if you must."_

_"We can get some ice cream when this is all over."_

_"Run, run away!"_

_"May Lady Luck be on your side."_

_"Maybe there's hope for you yet."_

_"You better go pipsqueak."_

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><p>Nothing made sense to the young boy as he ran. He hadn't even the faintest clue as to what happened. When he had woken up, they were being attacked and everyone was telling him to run. While he had listened to what they'd said, he couldn't help but fear he might not see any of them again. The only family he had ever known.<p>

The boy was only nine at most, seven at the least. His hair was blonde and somewhat spiky. Clothes were simple, black tee shirt, dark green shorts and a pair of dark gray shoes. Most prominent feature the boy had was probably his bright blue eyes. But there was also what was obviously a weapon that he held in his right hand as he ran. Few people knew him by name, but those that did called him Roxas.

His weapon could easily be seen as a giant key. The handle of the weapon was gray in color with a bright gold guard that was shaped almost like a square around the handle. There was a small blue ring that made the rain guard and coming out of the rain guard was a steely shaft with the teeth of the "key" forming the outline for a three-point crown. Coming out of the end of the weapon was a chain with a charm at the end that had a circle with two smaller circles attached.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been running, only that he'd started running before the sun had started rising. His legs, lungs and heart were all begging him to stop. For some reason though, he felt like he couldn't stop. Surely someone would catch up and tell him when to stop. Even as that crossed his mind though, he felt his right foot getting caught on a tree root.

Upon hitting the ground the blonde blacked out immediately. The weapon he'd held having escaped his grasp and landing a little farther away. Whether fortunately or unfortunately however, he wasn't the only one where. As proven when someone stepped out of the cover of the trees, eyes going from the unconscious boy to the weapon and back again.

It was an older looking woman who had a basket hanging from the left arm. She wore a red cloak with a high collar that had what looked like fangs along the edges. Her hair had been done up in a bun and had two golden pins with crescents on the end to keep the bun in place. The eyes of the woman were a red in color and she didn't seem all too pleased to see him. Actually, she seemed downright unsociable and so far her words had backed that up. Some might know her as Porlyusica.

"Humans." She muttered grudgingly before her eyes settled on the weapon, a surprised look of recognition in her eyes. Before she could go to investigate the peculiar weapon however, it disappeared in a flash of light. Her eyes traveled back to the boy. "For one so young to be accepted..."

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><p>"Damn humans. Can't even watch their own brats when they venture into a forest. I hate humans."<p>

As the kid woke from his unconscious state that had been the first thing he heard. The first thing Roxas saw was what looked like the inside of a tree. His first thoughts were along the lines of, _"What's going on...?" _Which was quickly followed by the memory of what had happened. He had been running, there was a tree root, he must have passed out when he hit the ground. He'd probably been tired from all the running, so the fall he took must have been the last straw before passing out.

That meant, judging by his surroundings and the unhappy voice, someone had found him when he was unconscious. Which, while most would consider good, was very bad in this case. How were the others supposed to find him? He had to get back to where he had passed out or they might never find him otherwise. Unfortunately for him, that probably meant asking the other, more irritated occupant of the tree where he'd been found. But why did she seem to hate humans?

There was a nagging traitorous thought in the back of Roxas' mind however._ "There's always the chance they didn't survive." _Just the thought made the boy scoff and shake his head before sitting up, they had to have survived. "Of course they survived. They're too strong to be defeated." While the words were meant as comfort for himself, he'd forgotten that he wasn't alone in what he had to guess was a tree.

"What was that?"

He turned his head and only for the briefest second he was reminded of one of the people he'd left behind. Not his favorite by far, but still one of them. That was only a brief second however, it wasn't impossible for more than one person to have pink hair after all. Actually, he would probably be in trouble if he ever mentioned the resemblance a man held with an old looking woman. The man had always been rather sensitive when it came to the unfortunate feminine appearance he held after all. Even if it was the woman that had likely found him. Aside from the pink hair though, there really was no resemblance between the man he was thinking of and the old woman before him.

"None of your business." Roxas muttered flatly, turning his head away from the woman. If she was going to speak to him with a tone of disdain, he'd counter with a tone of disrespect.

"Stupid humans." The woman grumbled, narrowing her eyes at the guest she clearly didn't want. "If you're going to be that way then get out already!"

In answer the boy turned to face the woman again, now with a glare in place. "Only if you tell me where you found me!"

"I'm not telling a brat like you anything!" Porlyusica snapped, now returning the boy's glare with one of her own.

"Then I'm not going to leave you alone." Roxas crossed his arms, looking at the older woman defiantly. Based off her clear dislike of humans, this seemed like a good counter. Not that he really understood her apparent hatred when she herself looked rather human to him. The boy knew looks could be deceiving after all.

For a moment, it looked like the woman was just going to ignore him as she walked away from him. But then she came back with a broom of all things. "Get out of my house! I hate humans!" Porlyusica snapped before she started swinging the broom at the child, and with some skill as she did so. There had to be some skill if she managed to hit only him and not even the vase that had been dangerously close.

Wisely, the boy chose to get out of the house. Never again would he underestimate the power of an old woman with a broom.

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><p>Despite the woman's attempts at getting rid of the blonde boy, a couple weeks later he could still be found nearby her house. Porlyusica might have that broom of doom, but that only worked in the house because there was no room to dodge. Outside however, Roxas was able to avoid the evil broom. With neither of them backing down, it was a war that could go on for a long while. If the area hadn't been considered a danger zone with just the woman, it definitely was now thanks to the boy.<p>

It wasn't like the two had conflict constantly though. When the woman wasn't trying to scare off the kid, she usually stayed in her house. The blonde could be found reading an odd book in times of peace. Where the book came from was beyond the Porlyusica's knowledge, but she really didn't seem to care and probably assumed it was similar to what had happened to his weapon. Just like how Roxas never questioned how she could stand locking herself up in her home all the time and assumed she wasn't as human as she looked.

Surprisingly enough, she did leave some food out for him once a day though. He really didn't understand that woman. One moment she was trying to scare him off with a broom, the next she was leaving food. What was he? A cat? Regardless, the blonde was thankful for the food. At first he'd suspected her of putting something in the food, but after a lengthy argument the food was deemed safe.

Today however, was apparently different from previous days however. When she left her house for the first time that day there was no broom in hand to try and chase him off. There was no bowl of soup or a plate of food that she would leave out for him to eat. Not even an herb collecting basket hung from her arm. So what was different today for the Haag?

Porlyusica sent a warning look his way. "I might be coming back with guests Brat. Behave."

"Stop treating me like an animal and maybe I will, Hag." Roxas stated stubbornly as he looked up from his book to glare back at her from where he sat on one of the massive roots of the tree her home was in.

Rather than making a comeback the woman scoffed and headed off into the forest. He was almost tempted to follow her but decided against it. For all he knew, that was exactly what she wanted him to do so she could lead him into a trap of some sort. Granted, that was unlikely when all things considered it was rare for him to _not_ know where Porlyusica was which would make it hard to plan anything... Unless she could communicate with the outside world somehow, which was unlikely given her hatred of humans.

Roxas shook his head, knowing he was over thinking things. It didn't matter anyways if he wasn't following the old Hag. That was another thing that had been developing since he'd first woken up. At first neither had known the other's name and called each other "Hag" and "Brat." They had been told each other's names multiple times now out of annoyance. The damage was done however and both stubbornly refused to show the respect of using the real names.

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><p>It wasn't even an hour later that Porlyusica had returned from whatever she'd gone to do. Surprisingly with guests in tow as well. He honestly hadn't thought she was serious when she said she might be coming back with guests. Yet, there were two newcomers following her. Both were on the short side though, not that he was much taller. One was a young girl about his age probably, the other was an old man that was shorter than her.<p>

The girl had red hair, not red like a dark orange either, red like scarlet. She wore a white shirt with a blue skirt and yell-brown shoes. Only one eye was visible and looked brown. It was the other eye that caught his attention, seeing as it was covered with an eye patch. Just looking at her face he could guess the wound was probably fairly recent with the sad and depressed aura that seemed to follow her.

Then there was the old man whose hair was gray. Part of his head was covered with a red ski cap, probably hiding the fact he was balding. He wore an unbuttoned navy blue shirt over a yellow shirt with shorts that matched the button-up shirt and dark yellow pointed shoes. The old man also had a mustache. Overall, he didn't look particularly impressive, but the boy knew looks could be deceiving.

All was silent as the trio approached the tree house until the old man took notice of the boy. "Oh? I don't recall you having a son Porlyusica."

"I don't. That's just the localized nuisance." The woman now known as Porlyusica stated bitterly sending a glare Roxas' way.

"Oi! Since when did I become a local!?" He knew that would just annoy the woman, but that was the point. Annoying Porlyusica until she answered his question was the only tactic he could come up with to get an answer.

"Since two weeks ago when you decided to stay!" Porlyusica snapped, glaring holes through the boy's head before turning to the old man. "There you go. Feel free to try." With that the pink haired woman headed into her tree house.

The red haired girl spared him a glance before following the older woman into the tree house. Or the "Hag's Den" as the boy had started calling it. When the door was slammed shut the boy knew he had reached his goal of annoying the woman for the day.

Forgetting about the old man that was still there the boy returned to his book. It was a fairly simple looking book. Bound with black leather, the only mark on the book was a silver upside down heart that turned into a cross going up and the roman numeral for thirteen inscribed underneath. The book was also small and pocket sized. By no means was it a quick read though, magic had been used on the book. Illusion magic had made it so only family members could read what was really in the book and all of it. He didn't even have to actually turn the page unless he wanted to avoid suspicion of having a magical book. Only thing he didn't know about the book was what other people saw.

"I'm going blind just looking at those teeny tiny words."

He jumped, almost dropping his book. When had the old man joined him on the tree root? It was a miracle he'd managed to catch the book before it got out of reach. The boy was quick to close the book and put it down by his side. "What do you want?" His words had come out rudely, but could you blame the kid when he'd nearly fallen off the root himself?

"Sorry about that, didn't mean to startle you." The old man apologized before holding his hand out. "Just wanted to talk."

The blonde's eyes narrowed suspiciously, ignoring the hand. "Talk about what?"

Seeing that he wasn't going to get a handshake, the old man lowered his arm but maintained a smile. "About you. I've heard you've been causing Porlyusica quite a bit trouble lately."

A snort was the boy's response. "Well if she would have just told me where she'd found me I would've left by now."

"Why is that so important to you?" A brow was raised at the young boy.

There was some hesitation on the boy's part before he answered. "It's the only way I can think of that can help me find my family."

"Wouldn't it be easier to go to the nearest town and ask around?"

The boy bowed his head. "It isn't that easy. They were attacked and they told me to run... so I ran in a straight line so they'd be able to find me."

For a while the old man didn't say a word, which the boy actually appreciated. After all, he hadn't exactly been able to explain to the hag of the forest. When the man spoke again, the boy found himself caught off guard when once more the hand was extended to him. "Makarov Dreyar."

Once more the boy hesitated, but before the hand could be dropped again the boy took it. "Roxas."

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><p>"Roxas...?"<p>

"What?"

"No surname?" Makarov already felt like he'd made progress with the "localized nuisance" that had been bothering Porlyusica. But the fact that the boy left out a surname bothered him more than it should have. He couldn't place it but there was something about the kid... that wasn't like the average child. It wasn't just the magic he was certain the boy possessed, there was something else.

The boy in question rolled his eyes. "Roxas Mu."

Makarov sent a look towards the boy, knowing that wasn't right.

"Alright, you got me." Roxas held his hands up in surrender. "It's Kokoro."

"Try again."

"Unmei."

Makarov sighed, he could tell none of the surnames were real just by looking at Roxas' smirk. "Be serious now."

Roxas let out a sigh of defeat. "Alright."

A minute passed and no surname was given. Makarov was really starting to wonder about the boy. "Well?"

Again, the blonde rolled his eyes, but when he spoke he looked serious this time. "I don't have a surname."

The older man found himself looking at the boy with confusion. "You said you had family, didn't you?"

There was a sigh from the younger boy as he looked down at the ground below. "It isn't that kind of family."

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><p>For the blonde's part, it was true. They hadn't been the kind of family all related by blood and sharing a surname. It had been a sort of artificial family actually. The look the old man was giving him made him want to elaborate. Maybe talking about himself would help relieve some of the stress he'd had lately anyways.<p>

"It was a guild, but we were all just one strange family. We were all a lot alike too, not having surnames included. They always said our surnames were the same because of it." That got a chuckle out of both Roxas and Makarov. Roxas found himself smiling a real smile for once since waking up in the tree house.

But then a frown crossed Roxas' face. He knew the reality though. Even if he hadn't stayed on a straight course, even if they were injured, they would've tracked him down by now. He sighed and bowed his head. "But it doesn't look like they survived the attack if I'm still here."

Makarov respectfully stayed quiet, seemingly knowing Roxas needed a moment.

"I don't even know where I am now on top of it all. Not that it really matters. There's nowhere for me to go now." Roxas admitted half to himself.

"Well, I don't think it's a good idea for you to continue bothering Porlyusica on a daily basis, or that broom of her's really will get you." Makarov put in humorously, offering a small smile even though his words were the truth. When Roxas made no move to respond the old man continued. "But if you need a place to go, there's always my guild, Fairy Tail."

That, got Roxas' attention as his shot up. "You're in a guild?"

"I'm the master of a guild!" Makarov stated proudly as he pointed a thumb at himself. At Roxas' raised brow he eased up a bit and offered a smile. "It is easier to find someone when they hang around public places more."

He supposed the old man had a point. If someone did survive and his trail was cold they wouldn't be able to find him in the middle of a forest. But if he joined the guild he'd at least be in the public eye and somewhat easy to find. Not to mention he'd be able to get some real food instead of whatever Porlyusica made. There was also the fact he wouldn't be living outside like the stray cat the hag seemed to think he was.

It was settled. If he ever saw a stray cat, he'd take it in.

Turning back to the conversation however, Roxas wanted to know more about Fairy Tail before he considered anything. "What's Fairy Tail like?"

Makarov seemed happy that the boy had taken an interest at the very least. "We're like a family. That includes Porlyusica too. We all support each other, young or old."

Roxas gave a thoughtful nod, his gaze drifting towards the tree house. "So that girl you came with is also a member?"

"Hm? Ah, yes. That was Erza, one of the younger members. I brought her here to see if Porlyusica could do anything for the eye." Makarov explained, following Roxas' gaze to the tree house.

The boy frowned recalling the look that had been on the girl's face. It was a look that said her whole world had come crashing down. He himself was familiar with that look, as he'd probably been wearing it a lot himself the last couple weeks. As tempted as he was to ask what happened, he wasn't about to pry. After all, he wasn't exactly going into detail about what happened himself.

It was almost like Makarov had expected the blonde to ask what had happened. He had waited for a bit, almost expectantly. But when Roxas had said nothing, he spoke once more. "So what do you say?"

Roxas looked at the old man, confused by the question. "What do I say to what?"

A chuckle escaped the old man at the boy's confusion. "Joining Fairy Tail."

"Oh." Roxas had forgotten that they'd been talking about the guild. He frowned looking down at the ground below. "I'll have to think about it."

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><p><strong>I just love the interaction between Porlyusica and Roxas.<strong>

**Anyways, here's the first chapter of Where the Key Belongs. Reviews are appreciated.**

**Hopefully now my mind will stop running off with more ideas and I'll be able to focus on this as well as other stories I have up. Mainly "An Incomplete Soul" and this of course. Hopefully "Harvest Hearts" will get a long-awaited update as well.**


	2. Missing Ache

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Fairy Tail, I am just a fan.**

**Dragon Silhouette-There isn't much I can answer without giving too much away at this time. However I can confirm that the Organization in this story is/was a mage guild from the Fairy Tail universe. Keyblade significance will be explained a bit in the next chapter when Roxas meets Fairy Tail.  
>Fyrestarr-Only bits and pieces about what happened will come around for a while. More solid information on the Organization will come to light once we're somewhere in the animemanga, won't say where though. Natsu has not joined Fairy Tail yet, in the story right now we're at X776. Same year Erza joined but a year before Natsu joined.  
>DPSS-I feel guilty saying it, but I'm more interested in this story and "Not Simple Anymore" than my other stories as well. As far as Roxas' abilities, they'll be mostly Kingdom Hearts based with a little tweaking to fit better with the Fairy Tail world.<strong>

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><p>It had been a few days since Makarov and Erza came to the tree house. Makarov had left to return to his guild after talking with Roxas, apparently it was dangerous for him to be away from the guild too long, something about damages. Erza was staying in the tree house until Porlyusica deemed the procedure for the eye a success. Porlyusica was back to her usual routine aside from adding the care for a child to said routine. Then there was of course, Roxas, or "Brat" as Porlyusica called him.<p>

Aside from reading from the pocket book and annoying the Hag, Roxas had added another activity to his daily routine. That activity was venturing away from the tree house and into the forest. Why would he venture into the forest that may or may not hold untold dangers? Well, simply put, he was getting lazy which was something he would've been scolded about well over a week ago. His talk with Makarov had reminded him of that fact.

So, he ventured into the forest for training. Only after he finished annoying the Hag for the day of course. It wasn't training he could get the hang of easily though, he'd always trained with someone in the past. Now he was training alone, his partner being the tree in front of him, covered in various signs of damage. There was a mixture of cuts, a variety of burns, even a small stone embedded in the trunk.

Examining the damage he'd done, Roxas nodded to himself. Despite his heavy breathing and the sweat dripping down his face, he didn't look tired. Even though he couldn't be more than eleven, he was looking at his work with a very serious and critical eye. After a moment's silence he allowed a small smile and another nod before turning away from the tree.

"You know... I never realized how dependent I was on you all until you were gone." Roxas muttered to himself, raising his right hand and just staring at it for a moment. "Can't even get back to Dark City on my own." With a sigh he shook his head and decided to call it a day.

As he'd learned the last couple days, there wasn't much that lurked in the forest, or at least this part of the forest. The Hag must've scared the majority of the forest population off. For him, this meant his only sparring partners consisted of trees, or the Hag herself and that broom of hers. This, was another good reason to consider joining a guild, sparring partners tended to be easier to find. By no means was that the only reason he was considering joining a guild though.

Porlyusica wasn't exactly social, so he had minimal social contact with others, if being treated like a stray cat could count. He hadn't been all that much for interacting with people before waking up in the tree house, but at least then there was his family. A crazy family with what most would consider weird personalities. Well, at least with his family he learned how to interact with different people. With Porlyusica he wasn't even interacting with another person, just a Hag.

Food was another thing, there was the one meal a day the Hag gave him. To tell the truth he wasn't even sure if he should count her food as... well... food. He more or less depended on what he could find in the forest after he somehow ate the Hag's food. Now, the problem with food from the forest is, he didn't know much about what is and isn't poisonous. Hunting wasn't exactly an option either when there seems to be invisible warning signs of the Hag's presence.

It wasn't like he would easily be found either if any of his family had survived. It had been over two weeks since he ran off. Had he stayed on the straight path they would have undoubtedly found him by now. They might've been able to track him down to the tree house for the first week, but they were beyond that point now. If he was in a town of some sort he'd be easier to find as well.

Then there was his training to think of too. Trees were good and all to practice attacks on, but they can't tell you how much something hurts. How would he know if he was holding back enough or not enough if there was no way to gauge his strength? He didn't want to go all-out on an opponent only to find he'd over done it. If he could practice against someone, he could probably give and receive pointers as well.

So lost in thought was he, that he almost didn't notice he was back by the tree house. It was a good thing he'd noticed though, otherwise he would've fallen off one of the large tree roots. The fall was just enough that it would probably hurt him. Roxas was fairly certain an injury would slow him down enough for the broom to get him. He did not want to be hit by the broom.

Now that he was back, he could go on with his routine. Sitting on the tree root he'd nearly fallen off of and read his book while being ignored by the Hag. She'd already tried to chase him away today and he'd already gotten his daily meal, all before he went to go train in the forest. After the broom attack and the meal, she tended to ignore him after all. Apparently today was different though.

"Brat!" Looking to the tree house, Roxas saw the Hag herself, standing in front of her door.

"What do you want Hag?" Roxas asked, genuinely curious as to what the woman wanted.

"Get down here!" Porlyusica snapped, apparently not in a particularly patient mood.

Now, the blonde boy was suspicious. "Why would I do that?"

Rather than yelling, which was what he expected, the Hag sighed and held up both of her hands. Neither of which held the accursed broom. "I am unarmed. Just want to make a deal."

There was only a little bit of hesitation before Roxas took a step forward and slid down the root. "Alright..." He approached the Hag with caution, half expecting her to pull the broom out of a pocket space of some sort. "What do you want?"

"I need to go collect some herbs." A glance back at the door to the tree house suggested the need for more herbs had to do with Erza. When the Hag received only a raised eyebrow from the boy she elaborated. "I want you to keep the girl company while I'm gone. If you do, your one meal a day will taste like actual food."

Roxas pointed an accusing finger at the Hag. "So you were making it taste bad on purpose!"

"Of course I was! I was hoping it would chase you away!" Porlyusica snapped at her own personal plague that took the form of a blonde haired Brat.

Now the blonde scowled up at the Hag. "Since we're on the subject, why don't we make it three meals and a snack every day."

It was the Hag's turn to scowl. "One good meal and a snack."

"Two good meals and a snack." If he could get more food out of this, it would mean less time playing "Wonder if that's Poisonous" with a bunch of berries.

Porlyusica wasn't going to give more food easily however. "Two meals only."

"Better make that two good meals, or I'm not doing it." Roxas crossed his arms, which meant that was as low as he would go.

There was a gritting of the teeth. The Hag clearly didn't want to agree to this deal. "Fine then."

One had to wonder where a kid learned to haggle.

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><p>His first impression of Erza, was quiet. She hadn't said a word since Porlyusica left to collect herbs. So, bored with nothing else to do, Roxas decided to get a good look of the Hag's Den from the inside. He didn't really remember much since the first and last time he was chased out with a broom. It wasn't very impressive, but it was better than what he'd been living with, dealing with the elements. By some miracle he hadn't caught a cold from the freezing rain a little over a week ago.<p>

"You're... the blonde boy, right?"

Roxas blinked, a little bit startled by the sudden sound before looking at the red haired girl. "I have a name... but the Hag probably only calls me Brat so you wouldn't know."

Bandages had been wrapped around her head to cover her eyes. So of course she wouldn't know if he was the same person or not. "She does." Erza admitted, giving a small nod.

"Oh? So she talks about me?" Roxas smirked a little at the thought.

"Yeah." Erza gave a small smile, probably picking up on his mood. "I'm Erza Scarlet."

"Roxas. No last name, which is my last name." After the conversation with Makarov, Roxas realized he would probably have to get used to saying that if people asked.

"Not having a last name... is your last name?" Erza's head tilted slightly, the thought clearly coming across as odd.

"Yeah. It's something we'd always joke about but it was still true." He rubbed the back of his head, knowing that it probably didn't make much sense.

"I see..." Erza bowed her head slightly. "A... friend gave me mine."

Hearing a bit of tension in Erza's tone, Roxas chose not to comment. If she wanted to talk about it, she would. He himself wasn't about to go into detail about his family and past, so he had no right to ask. Of course, that left them in a bit of an awkward silence.

Good thing Roxas had something else on his mind. "You're a member of Fairy Tail, right?"

Erza seemed a bit surprised by the change of subject but nodded. "I am. Why?"

"The old guy, Makarov asked if I wanted to join... I was wondering if you could tell me about it." As he spoke Roxas dragged a chair over to the bed Erza was sitting on so he himself could sit. "He said it was like a family... although I feel like that's just something they say to real you in."

"Oh." The red head sounded a little surprised and confused. Probably not used to conspiracy theories of how to get people to join a guild. "Well... I haven't been a member for long."

"Even better then. First impressions and all." Roxas spoke up, encouraging her to continue.

"I guess it kind of is like a family. Just about everyone gets along and helps each other out." She seemed to choose her next words carefully. "They fight sometimes too, but it's more like a friendly brawl. There's a few others around our age too. Laxus, he's thirteen... I think. There's also Cana and Gray. They're both about a year younger than me."

The blonde blinked, wondering why she told him about some of the members. Realizing this was lost on her though, he spoke up. "You're telling me about them why?"

A faint, embarrassed blush appeared on the girl's cheeks. "Well... when I first joined the guild I didn't interact with others. But then Gray confronted me and... well... now I feel like part of the family."

"It's like you found a place to belong?"

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><p>Porlyusica had expected she would have to yell at the Brat when she got home. She had honestly expected her home to be on fire or something by the time she got back. The tree was the same as she had left it however, at least as far as she could tell from the outside. A part of her feared that it might be like this because the destruction had been restricted to the inside of her home however. So she took a deep breath, ready to yell before opening the door.<p>

Much to her surprise, no yelling was needed. The only thing that appeared out of place was a chair. Even more surprising was that both preteens (or however old they were) were sleeping.

Erza was sleeping on her side, legs hanging off the bed slightly. Roxas was asleep in the chair that had been moved, but he was in a position where his head was on his arms on the bed. Had they talked themselves to sleep while she was gone? Perhaps it was just something she should write off as a miracle. The fact that there were no damages to speak of was a miracle in itself.

Deciding not to push her luck, she decided to let the Brat sleep. If only so that he could be more tolerable for a minute. A sleeping Brat was a Brat, but a quite one.

"Go away Hag..." The sleeping blonde mumbled in his sleep.

Well, she had thought a sleeping Brat was a quiet one. Where did she leave that broom...?

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><p>Days passed and Roxas received two good meals a day from the Hag. He continued with his self-training, which consisted of fighting trees that couldn't fight back. Occasionally the Hag let him in her home to keep Erza company. The more he spoke with Erza the more he considered Fairy Tail. At the very least he could see for himself what it was like. If it didn't seem like a good fit, he would at least be in a town and get an idea of where he was.<p>

Today was one of the days he got to keep Erza company. However, unlike previous times the Hag was still present and this day was different.

Erza's bandages were finally being removed.

He waited patiently as Prolyusica unraveled the bandages. Having not seen much of her eyes before, it wasn't too much of a bother for him. Actually, when the bandages had fallen to the floor he couldn't even tell which eye he should be looking at. There wasn't as much as a scar by either eye.

"How is it?" Porlyusica handed the red haired girl a hand mirror so she could see for herself.

Erza's brown eyes hesitantly opened. Seeing both eyes staring back at her, a gasp of shock escaped her. For a long moment, she just stared at the reflection before forming some words. "It's healed!"

Roxas looked at one eye, then the other and then back again. He had been right about one thing on that first day he saw her, she had brown eyes. Which eye had been covered with an eye patch again?

After examining her work with a critical eye, Porlyusica asked, "Can you see?"

"Yes..." The girl was still staring at her reflection in shock.

Porlyusica turned and began to walk away. "Then get out, immediately." A pointed look was sent Roxas' way. "Both of you. I hate humans, get it?"

"Hey! You can't do that Hag!" Roxas snapped at the woman.

"It's healed..." Tears ran down from Erza's left eye with a smile on her face, tears only fell from the left however, catching both the Hag and the Brat's attention.

A very slight gasp escaped Porlyusica at the sight. "You... That eye..." The words seem to bring Erza out of her reverie as the Hag continued. "You're only crying out of one eye..."

Erza's gaze returned to the mirror while Porlyusica rushed over to a desk where a book and some complicated looking devices rested. Roxas frowned at the development but said nothing, instead choosing to watch Erza's reaction.

"That shouldn't be..." Porlyusica muttered to herself as she flipped through pages of the book. "I didn't make an error while mixing the medicine... And yet..."

"It's Okay." Erza spoke up, smiling despite her eye that wouldn't shed a tear. "I've already cried out half my tears you see."

"Huh, so the Hag didn't mess up." Roxas mused thoughtfully, tilting his head to the side as if he'd expected the woman to mess up.

Erza looked over at him and couldn't help but let out a small laugh.

The pink haired woman was not amused however and suddenly, a familiar broom was in her hand. "OUT!"

* * *

><p>"I'm surprised she didn't kill you." The short old man known as Makarov murmured, shaking his head at the blonde boy.<p>

"Pfft... like I'd ever be killed by a Hag." Roxas stated dismissively as they walked through the forest, arms behind his head.

Makarov shook his head again, deciding that the boy was either very brave, or very stupid. Maybe both. When Makarov had arrived at Porlyusica's to take Erza back to the guild, he'd been greeted by the sight of Porlyusica chasing Roxas around with a broom. Erza had been sitting on the steps watching the chaos. One of the windows of the house were even broken.

Once Makarov had gotten the two to calm down-not without a few bruises-Roxas had announced he'd be leaving with Makarov and Erza. Something about not wanting to eat the terrible good cooking. At any rate, Makarov was glad the boy had decided to leave Porlyusica to her solitude. For everyone's sake. The blonde had made it clear that he hadn't decided on whether or not he'd join Fairy Tail however.

So, the trio of two preteens and an old man-who was shorter than said preteens-were now walking in comfortable silence through the forest. Although the rather large, black, poisonous spider whose web was in the way hadn't been there when Makarov had come through earlier. He'd been about to take care of it himself when Roxas stepped up himself.

"Hey, mind if I take care of this?" The blonde glanced back a Makarov. "I haven't been able to fight anything since I woke up at the Hag's... well... aside from the Hag herself."

Makarov had been about to say he should take care of it, not a kid but then thought better of it. It would give him a chance to see what the boy can do and if it got dangerous he could always step in himself. "I suppose. But be careful. That thing is poisonous."

Roxas nodded before taking a few more steps forward, gaining the spider's attention as he held out is right hand. "Alright then." Some fire-like shadow seemed to form in his hand. "Oblivion: Missing Ache." The moment the words left his mouth the shadows seemed to solidify and take shape until a weapon had formed in his hand.

The newly formed weapon had a black handle that had three spikes coming out of one end, a short middle one and two large side spikes that reached up and stopped about mid-handle. Going up from the handle two chartreuse spikes came down, almost touching the black spikes and forming the hand guard. Going up from the guard was a double sided blade that curved slightly going up to the top. Near the tip of the blade a chartreuse "X" that was large on one side of the blade and smaller on the other side gave the weapon some resemblance to a key. A small chain coming from the handle's end had a chartreuse token that bore resemblance to the to the hand guard, only squashed down.

Makarov recognized the weapon as a Keyblade. He'd been skeptical when Prolyusica had told him the boy had a Keyblade but now there was undeniable proof. Someone that could use a Keyblade was rare, but to meet one in Fiore was even more so. He'd heard tale of a Keyblade Master currently being in Fiore, but that was definitely a different person from the boy.

After a moment's silence Roxas charged straight towards the spider, which in retaliation spat poison at the boy. The poison was ducked easily and when the boy was close enough the spider struck out with one of its legs only for Roxas to dodge to the side before striking up with Missing Ache. A leg was lost to the spider as the Keyblade cut right through, but had it not moved it would be dead already.

The assault didn't stop there however as the Keyblade came swinging back down, catching the side of the spider's head. It let out a hiss-like sound and was about to sink its pincers into Roxas' exposed arm while the boy struck up again, this time however using the hand guard to attack. As a result the pincers clamped around the hand guard. For a moment, there was a stalemate as both spider and blonde were in a deadlock. Roxas was the one to pull back in the end and as the spider lunged at him, he pointed the Keyblade right at the attacker.

"Fire."

* * *

><p>Erza watched in amazement as her friend defeated the spider with a burst of fire launching itself from the strange weapon on command. One moment the spider had been flying at him, the next it had dropped dead. She couldn't help but wonder if that was Requip magic Roxas had used. If it was, it was different from regular Requip in that, instead of the weapon coming in light this one had come in shadow. It was something she would have to ask later.<p>

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><p><strong>Alright, before anyone jumps to conclusions, there are no pairings in this story. Or at least nothing planned yet. When I'm writing pairings tend to form without me noticing. Roxas and Erza are only friends and will likely stay that way. Maybe. I already have a lot planned out, so I know where the majority of this is going but I'm not about to say anything aside from "trio." *Slaps hand over mouth before anything else about future chapters can escape.*<strong>

**Questions? Concerns? Review or send me a PM and I'll try to answer if I can without giving anything away.**


	3. Abaddon Plasma

**Disclaimer: I own... what do I own? I know I don't own Fairy Tail or Kingdom Hearts.**

**KitsuNamikaze-Darkness is more or less how Oblivion materializes in Kingdom Hearts (at least in cut scenes), so as far as the connection to Roxas goes you'll have to wait for the future chapters to see if it is relevant.  
>Dragon Silhouette-Haggling is always entertaining, the fact that it was over food I think is what made it better. As far as Keyblades go, 3852 pulls me in like a magnet. Oathkeeper? What is this Oathkeeper of which you speak? *Shifty eyes.* Keyblade Master will remain a mystery for a while and we might not even get to meet he/she.**

**For le record: I never said "trio" was a single hint, it could be multiple hints. Or maybe it is only one hint. It could refer to the number of stray cats Roxas might pick up. It could refer to a group of Kingdom Hearts characters. It could refer to "light," "dark" and "in between." It could refer to a Fairy Tail team. It could clue you in on the number of current Keyblade Masters. It might even mean there's a time skip in the future that jumps a trio years!  
>Or maybe it isn't a hint at all. I never said it was a hint after all. 0.0<br>So, feel free to chew on that.**

* * *

><p>First impressions of Magnolia were... bright.<p>

Literally, the town was brightly lit by the sun. Maybe it was just him though, he didn't come from the brightest of places after all. The moment he'd left the cover of the forest he'd cringed, just a little bit from the brightness. There was light in the forest, but not nearly as much as there was out in the open. He just hoped his companions hadn't noticed the reaction.

"Welcome to Magnolia, Roxas." Makarov stated, looking down at the town from their position on a hill in the outskirts of town.

"What do you think?" Erza asked the blonde, curious about his first impression.

"Uh... Bright. Different..." Roxas shrugged, not really sure what to say. The town stood in major contrast to what had been his home. Nearby places to his home hadn't been much like Magnolia was either. In short, he wasn't sure what to think.

"Odd way to describe it." Makarov murmured before shaking his head and pointing towards the town. "You should be able to see if from here, that building at the edge, by the cliff over there."

Looking where Makarov was pointing, Roxas could just make out a building. He couldn't see much detail from where they were, but he was almost certain of what it was. "Fairy Tail?"

Makarov nodded and started approaching the town, leaving the two kids to follow. "When we get there try not to think too much about the damages."

He wasn't surprised by the statement. Based off what Erza had told him the guild often got into friendly brawls. Very destructive, but friendly brawls. Because of the brawls the building that stood as a base of operations suffered from damages. More often caused by magic than anything.

As they walked through town he couldn't help but notice all the people. More often than not they even had smiles on their faces. Some of them would stop what they were doing to greet Makarov or to humorously give the guild master some news of recent damages caused by the guild. Makarov always played it off as funny but the moment the person he'd been talking to was gone he'd fall into depression and mutter something about expenses.

By the time they reached the guild Roxas thought Makarov might collapse. Apparently the guild's destructive tendencies weren't restricted to the guild hall and in fact got worse when they left for missions. It was almost enough to Make Roxas pity the man.

"Well, here we are." Makarov stated, releasing an exasperated sigh.

What he saw was a white building with red shingles on a four story pagoda-styled building. Only the first three roofs had red shingles while the very top had a golden, round and pointed dome. It was definitely not of common architecture, at least in his experience. He could just make out a banner depicting what he suspected to the guild's mark.

He decided not to comment on the building's appearance. It wasn't like he knew much about architecture anyways.

Entering the guild, they arrived just in time to see one of the friendly brawls he'd heard about from Erza.

He even got the pleasure of ducking when a chair went flying his way. "So this is one of your friendly brawls?" Roxas asked his red headed companion.

Erza gave a small smile and a nod. "You don't look too shocked."

"Well, some of my family would get into a friendly brawl from time to time... this is tame in comparison." Roxas admitted, even while speaking watching the dust cloud of fighters.

"Tame?" Erza raised a brow at him.

The blonde nodded in confirmation. "Three F's, Fires, Floods and Flowers."

Before Erza had the chance to ask what Roxas meant, Makarov had decided the brawl had gone on long enough.

A once small old man suddenly grew to be the size of maybe three full-grown men put together. "Enough of this you fools!" His voice seemed deeper and was definitely louder now. It was something that demanded immediate attention.

There was an instant effect. Everyone in the dust cloud had frozen in place briefly before breaking apart.

Seeing the effect he had Makarov shrank back down to his usual size. He seemed a bit irritated. "I haven't been gone that long and yet, the moment I get back to town I hear about all your destruction on missions! If I hear from the Magic Council I know it won't be good!" The guild members started to adapt an ashamed look. "... Then again, it isn't like I care what the council says!"

The ashamed looks quickly disappeared and were replaced with grins and even some cheers. Soon, everything settled into what Roxas would assume is the norm for the guild.

"Well, I'll let Erza show you around." Makarov started, glancing back at Roxas and Erza before heading to what appeared to be a bar.

Both preteens blinked and exchanged looks before deciding to get away from the door and taking a table.

"So, now what do you think?" Erza asked curiously, so far she'd been finding his comparisons interesting. Even if she didn't know what they were being compared to.

"Different." Roxas considered how to put it into words. "We never had to worry about damage costs I guess. It was never really a concern despite the Three F's."

"What about missions?" She tilted her head a little.

The blonde gave a small shrug. "I was usually training so I didn't do missions as much as everyone else."

"Sounds boring."

Both Roxas and Erza turned their heads at the new voice. It was a kid, a couple years younger than them. He had spiky black hair and dark blue eyes. The thing Roxas noticed most about the boy was that he had no shirt, actually the kid was only wearing some blue boxer shorts. A dark blue Fairy Tail mark was on his right pectoral.

Roxas raised a brow at the newcomer. "Well, most of the missions we got were probably S-Class and up. I was only allowed to tag along on the A ranked missions since I was the youngest and not as strong as the others."

Some curious eavesdroppers stared at the blonde boy incredulously. After all, how many guilds even got that many high class missions?

"Pheh... liar." The boy scoffed at the thought. "There's no way you could handle an A ranked mission!"

"I tagged along. I didn't participate for the most part." Roxas offered a small shrug. He had never claimed to have completed a mission himself after all, the black haired boy was just jumping to conclusions.

"So if you already have a guild, what are you doing here?" With eyes narrowed with what might be distrust the boy crossed his arms.

"Gray." Erza spoke up with a frown of her own.

"Its fine, Erza. He has a point." Roxas stated, a serious look on his face now. Clearly Gray had hit a bit of a nerve. "Truth is, I don't know what happened to them. They could be dead for all I know." His eyes closed, but not out of sadness. He wasn't about to shed tears until he found out the truth. "Say what you want about me, but if you keep doubting their strength, we'll have problems." A narrowed glare was sent at Gray.

"What are you going to do about it?" Gray challenged, a slightly defiant gleam in his eyes.

A sigh was heard and Makarov appeared between the two boys. "I already see where this is going. Take it outside."

Both boys blinked at the small man and then looked at each other. There was a simultaneous nod from both.

* * *

><p>Erza wasn't sure what to do. Her friends, both somewhat new were going to fight each other. After seeing a little bit of what Roxas could do, she already had an idea of who would win in this. So, as she waited outside with a number of other guild members, she would stay quiet. She wasn't about to cheer one on and not the other.<p>

There was the majority of the guild was curious about the strange blonde that had returned to the guild with Makarov and Erza. The little information the eavesdroppers had picked up only served to make them more curious. Not many guilds even got S-class jobs. But a whole guild that normally took S-class jobs? Was there really such a guild?

A glance to her left revealed Makarov to be next to her. There was a question still plaguing her in regards to Roxas. "What is his magic? Is it Requip?"

The old man glanced at her and brought a hand to his chin. "How to explain... it isn't quite Requip, but it also is Requip. Keyblade magic is actually a magic that is of unclear identity. Some say the Keyblade brand of magic is two magics in one."

Quite a few people were listening to Makarov's explanation. Most having no idea what the mystery boy's magic was, even more wondering what a Keyblade was.

Erza, having actually seen Roxas use his magic briefly was growing increasingly curious. "Two magics?"

Makarov nodded in confirmation. "Possibly more, I've never really known much in regards to a Keyblade's uses. I know that two types of magic in particular are often related to the Keyblade. Both Requip and a magic called Takeover. Sometimes Keyblades are referred to as the Takeover Blade. Rather than holding multiple weapons like Requip, there is only one weapon that can change appearance and abilities like Takeover. I'm not entirely sure what's needed to cause the transformation however."

This explanation seemed to make quite a few more curious. Now they just wanted to see it for themselves.

So, all eyes turned to the two boys.

They were in an open space behind the guild. Plenty of room for a fight

Both boys were staring each other down.

"What're you two waiting for?" Makarov asked the two that looked ready to beat each other to a pulp.

"Don't know about the local stripper over there. But I was just waiting for you to finish talking." Roxas stated, not taking his eyes off Gray.

"Heh, now I know what you can do though." Gray pointed out, with a smirk. He seemed to be trying not to react to the stripper comment.

"Thought you could use the help." The blonde stated dismissively, serving to irritate Gray.

"Why you..." Holding out his left hand and placing his right fist into the open hand, gray got into stance.

Roxas held out his right hand. "Oblivion: ..." He paused as what appeared to be flame like shadows formed around his open hand. For a moment it seemed to take shape of a large black key. Before it could solidify into the shape however, the blonde spoke again. "Abaddon Plasma." The shape of the weapon that had been forming changed considerably.

The weapon had a black handle with a white tip that was surrounded with a yellow hand guard. Both sides of the guard had two diagonal spikes. For the shaft there was a small golden blade coming from the handle that was curved in at the middle before expanding only to end in a point with a thin black stripe going down the middle. At the tip of the blade was a silver X with a black partial circle that had three small spike and two larger between each small forming what could be considered the "teeth" of the Key. Coming out of the other side of the handle was a chain with a small eight point, golden star-like charm with a hole in the middle that had a ring of black around the edge.

"Heh, doesn't look so impressive." Gray dismissed the weapon as if it was a child's toy as a blue magic circle appeared before his hands. "Ice Make: Sword!" A small sword, fit for the boy's size, was created from ice as he charged at the blonde.

There was no movement from Roxas until Gray was practically in front of him. When that happened, Roxas slashed the Keyblade upwards, shattering the ice sword. That move was quickly followed with a kick to Gray's chest, who was still in shock from his sword being shattered. Gray was promptly knocked to the ground and Roxas brought the Keyblade down so it was at the younger boy's throat.

"Your ice was pretty flimsy. Maybe you should work on making it stronger rather than worrying about how the finished product looks." Roxas advised before taking his Keyblade away and then allowing it to disappear.

There was a stunned silence from those who were watching until Makarov cleared his throat. "So, have you come to a decision Roxas?"

The blonde blinked and then nodded. "Yeah." Given the seriousness of the blonde's tone, most would think he was going to say he'd be moving on. Then he smiled however. "I think I'll join."

Makarov grinned at the announcement. "Great! Now, for living arrangements since you can't afford your own place Fairy Tail will be supporting you. That being said, you'll be sharing a place with Gray until you can afford a place your own. So you two get to be roommates now!" It was hard miss how quickly Makarov spoke, obviously hoping neither boy would realize the implications of what he'd just said. "So, where'd you like your guild mark and what color?"

Both boys heard it though, as they'd both frozen in place before looking at each other with disbelief.

"Roommates?!"

* * *

><p><strong>Ha, roommates. Should be fun. I got this chapter done a bit late, procrastinated more than usual. I even procrastinated that English paper that was supposed to teach us not to procrastinate.<strong>

**So, I've been trying to estimate how many chapters until this joins in with the anime/manga. It looks like somewhere between seven and nine more chapters. The next chapter we'll be taking a bit of a timeskip and Natsu will be joining. We'll also get to see another character that appears in Kingdom Hearts. Something tells me no one will be able to correctly guess who it is that appears in Kingdom Hearts that will appear here and what happens with them, but to give you all a chance to prove me wrong, I have a red velvet cookie here for anyone who correctly guesses who.**

**Wrong guesses will get a mystery consolation cookie.**

**Thoughts, concerns or guesses? Review, send me a PM, something. Otherwise, your thoughts will go unheard, questions unanswered and no cookie for you! You can even tell me how you feel about what I said about the "trio" if you want.**

**Remember the Three F's, Fires, Floods and Flowers.**

**Fortune cookies. They're everywhere.**


	4. Sign of Innocence

**Disclaimer: I could give you a long list of things I don't own, but I'm just going to stick to the two that matter in this case. I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Fairy Tail.**

**Sam4801-Actually I'm a woman. Gender aside though, thank you for acknowledging my evil. *Takes a bow.* I'm aware of the many threes in Kingdom Hearts, why do you think I'm focused on that number? XD  
>Fyrestarr-I came up with that and I was like: "That is perfect."<br>Dragon Silhouette-The Three F's was Roxas naming a few of their destructive tendencies. Yes, time skips. Natsu joined before the Takeover siblings I believe. Axel is Igneel... definitely not in this story but that is giving me ideas now... thank you for that. But you may be on to something with the character not being KH exclusive. *Innocent whistle.* And yes, Makarov is such a troll. XD  
>AirBorne-Nope, it isn't Xion or Namine. Granted, they will appear, but not yet.<br>KitsuNamikaze-Gray and Roxas won't always be on best terms, but there will be times when they get along as well. Not quite in a rival way though. As for Natsu and Roxas however, well we should get some idea in this chapter.  
>DPSS-(I know the review was for chapter two but I'm answering here.) The idea I've come up with for Keyblades is that every Keyblade wielder has a base Keyblade. So if Roxas were just to say "Oblivion" he'd get Oblivion, but if he adds another Keyblade's name like "Missing Ache" after that then that command is like switching the key chains or gear. There will be more explanation when one or two (maybe a trio) of the other Keyblade wielders show up. Some Keyblades will have more active abilities Twilight Blaze for instance will be a bit more fiery. Finally, well, if I'm including the stick in the next chapter then I'm definitely including the Umbrella.<strong>

**... Wow, you guys are starting to get paragraphs out of me already. 'Tis a good thing. Happy to answer questions as long as it doesn't spoil anything.**

* * *

><p>"Dammit! Get off of me!"<p>

"I will. Eventually. You started it so you can suffer for a bit."

This was the dialogue Erza heard as she approached the front door. It had been nearly a year since Roxas had decided to join the guild. Even now both Roxas and Gray got into arguments but the arguments weren't as serious as they had been when the two met. Now it was usually a stupid argument. This particular argument was probably the same one they had every morning.

Who goes out the door first.

"Honestly, how can anyone argue so much?" The brown haired girl walking with Erza sighed and crossed her arms. Cana Alberona, one or two years younger than Erza but a member of Fairy Tail for longer. She wore an o dress with a pair of sandals and her brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Much like Roxas and Gray, Erza and Cana were roommates as well, at least until one or both could start affording their own places.

As had become a bit of a routine, the girls would stop by the boys' apartment and together the four youngest members of Fairy Tail would head to the guild hall. When they got to the guild hall the kids usually went their separate ways. Cana and Gray were restricted to town for missions. Roxas and Erza however were allowed to leave town for missions as long as they teamed up and didn't go too far.

"I guess it's just how boys are." Erza shrugged before opening the door to see an all too familiar scene. It was so familiar in fact, she didn't comment on that. She had something else to comment on though. "You guys really need to start locking the door."

"If someone really wants to break in that bad a locked door won't stop them for long." Roxas stated dismissively as he sat on Gray's back with a foot on the younger boy's head. "Not like our windows have locks."

"Besides, neither of us have anything of much value here." Gray added, voice slightly muffled by the wooden floor his face was being pushed against.

"But the guild's funds are paying for this place. Any damages and more will come out of the funding." Erza pointed out with narrowed eyes. Ever since she'd started seeing with two eyes again, it had become her goal to help Fairy Tail in any way possible. Getting two boys to take better care of their living quarters was a small step.

Gray couldn't see the look Erza was sending them, even so he paled slightly. The girl had become a bit of a terror in the guild. In fact, one of the few who didn't fear her was sitting on him right now. Erza simply didn't scare the blonde, or maybe it was some kind of mutual respect? It was rather hard to say for sure.

"It isn't like we're so broke we can't pay for repairs ourselves. Although a repair man probably wouldn't take us seriously." Roxas shrugged before getting off Gray's back and standing up. "Well, if it puts your mind at ease we could lock the door today."

Gray rolled onto his back with a small groan of pain. "Yeah, doesn't sound like too much trouble."

Erza smiled a little at the compromise.

* * *

><p>After locking the door and leaving the boys' apartment the four kids had made their way to the guild hall. Gray and Cana had left fairly quickly however to do some missions around town, eager to prove they were ready to take jobs outside of town. This of course presented Roxas and Erza with a few options. Take a mission themselves, terrorize the guild or train.<p>

Taking a mission was far more interesting and less likely to end in some sort of punishment. Which is how they came to be in Hargeon, a port town only a short train ride away from Magnolia. It was a job they should be able to get back home to by nightfall.

"So, where exactly are we supposed to find this guy if he's always on the move? It seems like more difficult than your average capture missions." Roxas spoke absently as he and Erza wandered the port town's streets.

Erza frowned and looked down at the request they'd taken. "A small menace in blue that attacks during the day isn't much to go on either. By the information given he usually just goes after the shops."

"From what we've seen so far however all the shops are closed." The blonde pointed out, his gaze wandering over to a closed shop as they passed it. "Probably don't want to be the next victim or something."

"There's always one idiot that stays open." With a shrug Erza picked up the pace, taking the lead while doing so.

He couldn't argue with the armored girl's logic. Especially when the shattering of a window was heard not long after. They hadn't even had to look at each other before bolting down the street towards the source of the noise.

They were just in time to see a blur of blue climb onto the roof of the very store it had broken into in an attempt to escape. It was an attempt, because now there was two mages following.

"I'll take the roof." Erza stated before veering off course and using some nearby crates to get up to the rooftops.

Moving on as if nothing had changed Roxas did his best to follow from the ground. He lost track of Erza and the crook several times actually. Only thing to help him find them again was the sound of Erza's boots pounding on the roofs. This time when he heard a sound to help him find them again, it didn't sound good. There was a distinct crashing sound and a grunt of pain from Erza.

Taking the next turn, Roxas spotted Erza on the ground knocked into some trash cans. She was gripping one leg in pain and pointing her sword at something on the opposing wall of an alleyway. What the sword was being pointed at was beyond him. Not because he couldn't see it, but because he could see it. This was not something he'd expected to see in Hargeon.

It was a small furry blue creature with large black eyes. There were six legs in total, sticking to a wall like some bugs tended to do. Two large ears with a pair of antennae in between. Several spines stuck out of its back and it had a stubby little tail. Almost like someone had combined a dog, a bug, maybe some dinosaur and some blue food coloring with the creature on the wall being the end result.

Honestly, Roxas had figured the culprit would be some midget dressed in a blue jumpsuit or something based off what little they had to go on.

The thing was sending a glare at Erza and growling. Was he being ignored here?

"Roxas, quick, freeze it or something." Erza stated, looking at him from the corner of her eye.

Roxas frowned as the creature seemed to take notice of him and backed up the wall warily. There was something about the blue furball Roxas couldn't quite put his finger on. Deciding on a peaceful approach Roxas held both of his empty hands up. "Hey, it's all right." He turned his head to Erza. "Put the sword down.

Erza sent him a confused look, but trusting the blonde she lowered her sword.

There was a wary approach as it came down the wall a bit. It didn't seem to trust them, but then again one of them had been pointing a sword just moments ago.

Something clicked in Roxas' mind. "It's warm here, isn't it?"

It blinked, looking a bit surprised before nodding. "Ih!"

Roxas took that as a means of agreement and offered a small smile. "Better than the cold, isn't it?" He received a similar response to the previous but with the added bonus of the furball coming further down the wall. The little guy was closer now and Roxas offered a hand. "I'm Roxas."

The initial movement had spooked the little guy but after taking a moment to analyze the situation came back. It hesitated before taking Roxas' hand with one of its small clawed hands. "Six... two... six." There seemed to be some difficulty forming words, even so that seemed like an accomplishment.

Roxas managed a smile, withdrawing his hand. "Six-two-six, huh? Strange name you got there." He gestured down to Erza who was watching the strange conversation with an unreadable expression. "This is Erza."

It seemed to growl at Erza as it repeated her name. "Erza."

"Hey, relax." The blonde ordered with a frown. "You brought her wrath on yourself breaking into all those stores."

Well, the furball had the sense to look guilty. Ears folded back and all. "Is sorry?"

"You don't need to apologize to me. You should be apologizing to all those shopkeepers you terrorized." Roxas stated, crossing his arms with a stern expression. Sometimes, using a guilt trip was far easier than beating up the problem. "And promise to never do so again."

The blue furball jumped from the wall to the ground, landing on his back legs and tapping the fingers of his four arms together in a guilty manner. "I promise."

"How about I take you to apologize to everyone?" Roxas asked as he offered his hand.

For a long moment the little guy stared at the hand, nose twitching before grabbing Roxas' arm to look at a black mark. "Eh?" He looked up at Roxas with a questioning look.

The black mark was his Fairy Tail guild mark placed on his forearm. Normally the blonde forgot it was even there so he hadn't given it much thought when he offered his hand. "That's my Fairy Tail mark."

"Fairy... Tail...?"

"Yeah." Roxas nodded, glancing at Erza before looking back down at his new found furry friend. "Practically family."

"Family...?" A tilt of the head, a thoughtful, almost longing look as he let go of the blonde's arm. The furball looked around before rushing over to Erza's side to help her, which took the red head off guard but she soon warmed up to the little guy and smiled.

* * *

><p>Over the course of the day as they escorted the blue furball around town so he could issue his apologies, they learned quite a bit. For starters, despite having difficulty speaking the same language as them, he was a genius. How a dog-bug knew how to make glass to replace a broken window was beyond him. There was also the freaky strength that allowed the little guy to carry the huge piece of glass and put it in place.<p>

It was almost time for Erza and Roxas to head back to Magnolia by the time all was taken care of and the kids had gotten their reward for stopping the "Blue Shop Menace" as the request had called the furball. Before they left Hargeon however, Roxas had insisted they all get ice cream so now the three of them were sitting on a bench outside the train station enjoying some ice cream. Erza had never really understood why the blonde was so attracted to ice cream, but she didn't question it. She'd been skeptical about the whole ice cream after a mission thing at first, but it really was a nice way to end the day.

There was still the question of what to do about the little guy though. They couldn't exactly leave him alone after everything that happened.

"You know, Six-two-six doesn't really fit you as a name." Roxas stated absently looking down at his popsicle. This got the furball's attention naturally, a look of confusion in its eyes. "Some random number, sure. But definitely not a name."

The blue furball looked down sadly, ears going back.

"How about I give you a decent name?" Roxas suggested, smirking without looking at the new friend. "The dark blue marking on you back reminds me of stitch marks. So, how do you think "Stitch" sounds?"

"I like Stitch." The newly dubbed "Stitch" announced proudly.

Roxas smiled before getting up, tossing his popsicle stick into a nearby garbage can. "Well, we need to get going, Stitch."

Erza frowned, wondering what the blonde was up to. Even so, she stood up to join him. Over the last few months she'd noticed that Roxas usually had a plan, which seemed odd for anyone in the preteen years. She always passed it off as something he'd picked up before Fairy Tail, even so it still seemed odd.

"You know... I promised myself a while back that if I ever saw a stray cat I'd take it in." Roxas mused thoughtfully before heading into the station.

Erza glanced back at Stitch who had a thoughtful look in his eyes. She already had a feeling Roxas' plan was working. It wasn't an evil plan, she was sure it was a plan with good intentions. The cat thing was confusing, but she was pretty sure Stitch would be able to figure it out.

* * *

><p>Later that day, the sun was almost completely below the horizon in Magnolia. Yet, two boys were arguing in front of their apartment. The reason for the argument was really quite simple.<p>

"It was your idea to lock the door!"

"You've lived here longer than me! You should've kept track of the key! I didn't even know we had a key!"

Yep... they were locked out of their apartment. They could probably fix the problem easily with magic, but they had more reason to argue now. How could Roxas and Gray pass up the fuel for that fire?

"Roxas?"

Both boys paused in their argument to look at the source of the new voice. Roxas recognized the blue ball of fur right away. Gray was just plain confused at the sight.

The blonde raised a brow. "What're you doing here?"

In answer Stitch raised his arms and somehow pulled the two middle arms into his body. Then he proceeded to do the same with his spines and antennae. With that he sat down on all fours, trying to look cute. "I'm kitty! Fluffy kitty!"

Roxas couldn't help but grin. "Well then, think you can help us out and unlock the door?"

"Ih!" Stitch nodded before scampering up the front step and much to Gray's shock, going up onto the wall. The furball continued to a window, slid the window open and entered the apartment. Less than a minute later the door swung open and Stitch sat in doorway. "Bark, bark, meow!"

"What the hell just happened?" Gray asked, an eye twitching as he tried to comprehend what just happened.

"My new cat just unlocked the door for us." Roxas stated with a grin before entering the apartment and gesturing for Stitch to follow.

"More like a wall-walking dog just broke into our apartment." Gray murmured, shaking his head as he already had a feeling it was going to be a long night.

* * *

><p>There was a commotion in the guild the next day. Makarov had returned from a meeting earlier that day, but he hadn't returned alone. He'd brought with him a boy with pink hair that wore a white scaly-looking scarf. It was the boy that was the source of the commotion. One could only hope that he'd settle down given time. Everyone had thought that about the last few kids to join however, no luck in that department.<p>

At the moment, the pink haired boy known as Natsu Dragneel was arguing with Gray.

"And I say you're lying! There's no way your father's a dragon! Dragons don't exist!" Gray snapped as part of his argument with the new boy.

The new boy gritted his unusually sharp teeth in annoyance. "What is wrong with you people!? Dragons do exist!"

Before Gray could bite out a retort something heavy and metallic hit him over the head.

Natsu blinked in surprise before looking at the cause to see a boy older than him but younger than most of the guild members. If he had to guess he'd say the blonde was about as old as that scary red head.

"Honestly Gray, do you pick a fight with every new member?" The blonde asked in annoyance as he slung the strange object he'd hit Gray with over his shoulder.

The weapon maybe had a smooth white handle and was surrounded with an almost raindrop shaped indigo hand guard. There were three magenta diamonds, one at the base of the indigo shaft with the other two on either side on the guard. A dark indigo was the color of the rather short shaft that turned into a cross at the top. At the tip of the cross, one of the sides of the cross and around where the cross met the shaft were more magenta diamonds. Encircling the cross and going through the middle of each cross diamond was a white circle that almost closed at the side of the cross with no diamond. From the end of the blade was a chain with a triangular charm that resembles the head of the blade, dark indigo in color with three magenta triangular gems and one triangular gap decorating it.

Gray rubbed his head where he was hit. "Come on, you don't believe him either right? I mean dragons don't even exist!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." The blonde stated, narrowing his eyes at Gray. "Dragons are as real as you and me. I don't see why one couldn't raise a human."

Natsu once more blinked in surprise. This was the first person since he met that old man called Makarov to openly admit they believed in dragons.

"Ah! Roxas! Gray!" Speaking of the old guy, there he was now. "I'm glad I found you two." Makarov blinked, looking at the weapon the blonde now identified as Roxas was holding. "Say, which one is that?"

"Huh?" Roxas blinked before looking at his weapon. "This one is called Sign of Innocence."

"Ah. Let's see if I can remember this time." Makarov nodded thoughtfully before bringing his gaze back to the boys rather than the weapon. "I hope you don't mind but I was thinking Natsu could room with you two."

Roxas raised a brow at this before turning his gaze to Natsu. "If he's alright sleeping on the ceiling fan." He shrugged while his weapon disappeared, seemingly being devoured by shadows.

"Ceiling fan? Don't you guys have a couch?" Makarov asked with a raised brow.

"Gray sleeps on the couch." Roxas explained, scratching the back of his head.

"... I'm going to regret asking this, I know." The old man sighed before asking. "Why?"

"Roxas got a cat that kicked me out of my room." Gray muttered, a look of clear annoyance on his face.

"You're the one that got beat up by a cat." The blonde stated with a dismissive wave of the hand.

In the whole conversation, Natsu was only getting more confused. Why would anyone lose to a cat of all things?

"When did you get a cat?" Makarov asked rubbing his forehead.

"Well, me and Erza took a mission to Hargeon yesterday and one thing lead to another. Now I have a cat. He followed me home." Roxas' explanation made perfect sense to the pinked haired boy.

"Oh, so Stitch followed us after all." The scary red haired girl had approached during the odd conversation.

"You're in on it too?!" Gray pointed an accusing finger at the girl.

"Yeah, he's a cat. Not much to it." Erza stated as if it was obvious. "Where is he anyways?"

Roxas looked about the room thoughtfully. "Well, he came here with me..." Tilting his head up the blonde took a deep breath before calling, "Stitch!"

In response to Roxas' call a furry blue creature seemed to fall from the ceiling in the middle of the growing group of people. It didn't look like a cat.

"Looks like a dog." Natsu could help but say.

"He says he's a cat." Roxas shrugged as if there wasn't much difference.

Natsu couldn't help but think that he was going to like it at Fairy Tail.

* * *

><p><strong>And thus we find some relevance with Roxas being treated like a stray cat. Anyone expect Stitch to pop up? I don't love much, but I do love that blue furball. Also, any thoughts on Roxas' belief in dragons?<strong>

**Well, review send, me a PM or something. Let me know what you think of the story so far, you can even give me suggestions. I might have a lot planned out but that doesn't mean there isn't room for more. Just keep in mind that the introduction of some characters may have already been decided. Especially all Nobodies. ;)**

**A black squirrel crossed my path. Anyone know what that means?**


	5. Stick

**Disclaimer: I don't think I'd be writing this if I owned Fairy Tail, Kingdom Hearts or both.**

**Guest-Will Roxas be paired with anyone... possibly. When I write I get blindsided by any pairings that pop up. Chances are, you'll all know if there's a pairing before I do. ^^' Only thing I know for sure is that Roxas and Erza will only ever be friends at most.  
>DPSS-Yep, Stitch is Roxas' furry buddy now. As for your thoughts on "trio," maybe (not about to confirm), but I believe "trio" could have multiple meanings. I wouldn't be so sure Roxas will be a favorite, as one might get an idea of in this chapter since we'll be exploring how Roxas fits into the Fairy Tail puzzle. Even if he does cause minimal damage, there's always personality. As for what Roxas is wearing, since I noticed in most flashbacks the young Fairy Tail members generally wore the same thing. So, Roxas is still sticking with his attire from chapter one, black tee shirt, dark green shorts and dark gray shoes. That will be changing a bit in this chapter however.<br>Fyrestarr-I couldn't resist putting Stitch in. Plus with all the family talk going on I can't help but think of him.  
>AirBorne3-I aim to surprise, so I'm glad Stitch was a surprise.<br>Random Person-(Nice name by the way.) Mushu, Bahamut, good guesses. Good to know about the squirrel.  
>Dragon Silhouette-Gray and Roxas arguing just seems natural to me. As for the relationship between Roxas, Gray and Natsu, well I think that will be clarified a bit in this chapter. Well, I don't see why a Kingdom Hearts crossover can't have more than just the characters exclusive to the games. Besides, Stitch is fun to write and I felt Roxas could use a permanent buddy. Of course Roxas and Erza accept Stitch as a cat pretty much right away. Then the squirrel... I wouldn't call it lucky as I almost ran the guy over with my car. You might be on to something with the squirrel being a cat in disguise. o.o<strong>

**Alright, this chapter will be focusing more on Roxas' relationship with some of the Fairy Tail members. It is also taking place when Happy's egg appears so we got that going on too.**

* * *

><p>Roughly a year had gone by since Natsu joined the guild. Things were far from calm whenever Fairy Tail was mentioned lately. Some might wonder why that was. The answer was actually quite simple. A new generation of Fairy Tail mages, were proving to be particularly destructive with no sign of bringing down collateral damages.<p>

If anything they were becoming even more destructive as they grew older. Roxas no surname, was no different from the others. Although his destruction tended to be more on the sly so when his destruction was found, it was far too late for anything to be done. Well, that would explain why taxes tend to go up a month or so after the Keyblade user came through.

Makarov was glad he didn't have to pay for the damages the young blonde caused. Now, you'd think that would make the boy a favorite...

"Hey, Old Man Munchkin."

Maybe if the boy respected his elders, he'd be a favorite. When Makarov had first met the boy, he'd thought his nickname for Porlyusica was just to irritate the woman as pay back for her attitude. But no, apparently the spiky blonde haired boy lacked respect for just about anyone, young or old. There were a few exceptions, but only a few.

With a twitching eye Makarov turned his attention to Roxas. "What is it?"

The boy had grown a bit since they first met. Makarov suspected the boy was thirteen now, if not then he was close to turning thirteen. Unfortunately not even Roxas himself knew how old he was so there was no way to be sure. He had changed his choice of clothing a bit as well. Instead of a black tee shirt, dark green shorts and dark gray shoes, he now wore a white shirt, black shorts, a gray jacket and a new pair of dark gray shoes. If Roxas didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes, Makarov would've thought the boy came from a place of black and white.

"I think someone needs to break up the brawl." The blonde jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the dust cloud of brawlers. "And no, it wasn't Natsu or Gray that started it. They're fighting somewhere in town."

Sometimes, Makarov wondered if the boy just liked to cause him headaches. They both knew the destruction the two younger boys could cause and they both knew Roxas could stop them easily. Roxas wasn't the rule-enforcer of Fairy Tail's younger generation however, he was the seemingly lazy but surprisingly powerful one. Rule-enforcer went to the destructive Erza.

Rubbing his forehead Makarov sighed before going to interrupt the brawl. Just in time to stop it before it could go too far.

"Well, I should probably go see how much damage Erza has done to my roommates." Roxas could be heard saying before heading out of the guild.

* * *

><p>"Honestly guys, I thought you two would've learned by now." Roxas stated with a sigh, poking his downed roommates with a stick. When he'd arrived, he had been just in time to see Erza knock out both Gray and Natsu with one move. Had Roxas been the type to be embarrassed by the failures of his roommates, he would certainly be beat red by now. However, Roxas wasn't easily embarrassed.<p>

"You should keep a better eye on these two." Erza stated as she returned to the scene of the almost-crime.

The blonde glanced over at the red head and merely shrugged. "Sounds like work. Enforcing the rules can be your thing."

Erza raised a brow at her on and off partner for missions. "They're your roommates. Plus, you're the oldest resident in the apartment. You should be setting an example."

Now it was Roxas' turn to raise a brow. "You want them to follow my example? Last I checked, you thought I was a lazy good for nothing." He knew it was safe to back-talk Erza. After all, he was one of the few who could back-talk Erza and not even be the aim of an attack.

Gray sat up, rubbing the bump on his head. "Well, you are... Ow!" He didn't take into account the stick.

"Word of advice, don't annoy the guy with the stick." Roxas stated before leaning the stick over his shoulder. After learning that he could beat both Gray and Natsu with a regular old stick the blonde had started carrying one with him a majority of the time. Mostly to fend off surprise attacks without needing to call a Keyblade.

Natsu laughed at Gray's misfortune, pointing a finger at the half-naked boy as he did so. That is, until he was reintroduced with the stick. "Ow!"

"Well, I think that's as far as I go with rule-enforcing." Roxas released another sigh, tapping his stick on the ground. "If you two idiots are done picking fights you can't win, I'm going to head home and make sure Stitch isn't building a bomb... again."

"Wait!" Before Roxas could even turn to leave Natsu was on his feet. "Fight me!"

"Idiot. A few hours isn't going to change the outcome." Gray muttered, rubbing the two bumps on his head.

The blonde shrugged, indifferent as to whether he fought the pink haired boy for maybe the third time that day or not. "Your ice is flimsy and his fire is uncontrolled. Honestly, you two would get stronger fighting each other if you didn't already do that..." He scratched the back of his head. "The usual place, Natsu?"

Natsu flashed a grin and nodded excitedly before running off in the direction of the East Forest.

"Ah... Gray, mind going to make sure Stich hasn't made another bomb?" Roxas didn't even wait for a reply before following after Natsu and swinging the stick over his shoulder. "We'll meet you back at the guild in an hour so."

"Oi! He's your cat!" Gray shouted after the blonde haired roommate.

* * *

><p>"About time!" Nastu huffed, crossing his arms as the blonde finally joined him in a clearing in the forest.<p>

Aside from the poorly drawn faces of Erza and Gray tied to a tree, it wasn't much different from any other clearing. Even so, this was where Natsu normally went to practice alone or with Roxas. Roxas could never claim to fully understand the younger boy, but then again a lot of people could say the same about him.

Roxas merely rolled his eyes while lifting the stick off his shoulder. "You're the one that ran off."

Ignoring what the blonde said, Natsu pointed at the stick. "Hey! Use one of those Keyblade things! I need a challenge!"

A small snort of laughter escaped Roxas. "I'll start using a Keyblade against you when you stop losing to a stick. I told you that before."

Over the last year or so, Roxas had found summoning a Keyblade for everything was a bit overkill. The stick had become a worthy substitute. It didn't even have a burn mark from Natsu yet. A very worthy stick indeed.

Roxas' comment did the trick and Natsu charged, a fist full of fire and ready to burn. Before he could reach the blonde however, the stick knocked his fist up and back into the fire user's face. The hit sent Natsu to the ground with a busted lip.

"Charging in recklessly, again." The blonde scratched the back of his head as he approached Natsu. Looking down at the slightly dazed boy. "You know, when I was younger losing my temper almost got me killed a couple times. I always had back-up then because of it. If you aren't going to try reigning in your emotions... make sure someone has your back."

Sitting up, Natsu frowned at the statement with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

"Not to say emotion in battle is a bad thing though. Some can even use their emotions to fuel up their attacks." Roxas brought the stick back onto his shoulder to rest. "Just don't let them completely control you in battle."

"Not sure I get it." Natsu admitted after a moment as he got back up to his feet and went to the tree with the faces of Erza and Gray. He readied his fists to punch the faces and then paused, looking back at Roxas. "... You still believe me about dragons, right?"

Roxas blinked, a little surprised by the change of subject. "Of course. I knew about dragons before I knew about you actually."

"Really? How did you know about dragons?" A dangerous thing had occurred, Natsu's curiosity had been peaked.

A smirk appeared on Roxas' face as he turned to leave the clearing. "Maybe I'll tell you some other time. Like when you finally manage to burn the stick."

He didn't have to look to know Natsu was pouting at the answer he had received. The sounds of fist hitting tree was heard, by the time he'd almost left the clearing completely there was one particularly loud hit that scared off the birds in the nearby trees.

"T-that didn't hurt!" Which of course meant it hurt. There was the sound of a thud closely following that declaration.

Wondering what happened Roxas glanced back to see Natsu with a new bump on the head and an egg nearly as big as the boy on the ground next to him. So if he had to guess, that last punch had loosened the large egg out of the tree. When the egg fell it hit Natsu on the head. It was a strange looking egg however, white in color with dark blue markings.

* * *

><p>"It's an egg! I found an egg!" Natsu was cheering as he and Roxas returned to the guild, Natsu dancing around with the egg in hand.<p>

Roxas merely rolled his eyes and took a seat at one of the tables nearby. He listened half-heartedly to the conversation as Natsu explained about where he found it to Makarov and the pink haired boy got mad at Gray for calling the egg breakfast. Natsu had thought the egg was a dragon's, although Roxas had doubt about that part. When Natsu asked Makarov to hatch the egg the old munchkin turned very serious. Makarov then went on to try to explain how magic can't defame life to Natsu, Gray and Cana.

Much like when Roxas had tried to teach Natsu about emotions in battle and back up, the pink haired roommate stated flat out that he didn't get it. Makarov had concluded Natsu was too young to understand. Erza came up with the brilliant idea of Natsu hatching the egg himself, her mere presence unnerving Gray. The revelation that Erza was back triggered something else however.

Recently, a new team had joined Fairy Tail. The three members of the team were siblings and in the age-range of Fairy Tail's younger generation. They all had the same magic, hence the team name of Takeover Siblings. All three had a different variation of Takeover magic however. Erza didn't get along very well with the oldest of the siblings.

Mirajane Strauss, who preferred Mira, was the oldest. She had white hair tied back with a purple bow and blue eyes. As a total opposite of Erza who wore armor, Mira wore a purple tank top that left her midriff exposed, dark blue short-shorts with a white belt that had a skull buckle and dark purple boots that went over her knees. Despite Erza constantly scolding Natsu, Gray and the majority of the guild for fighting, she and Mira fought about as often as Natsu and Gray.

Hence why it was no surprise the two were fighting again.

"Way to lower the bar guys." Cana murmured from where she stood between Natsu and Gray as the three watched the fight.

"And Erza was telling _us_ not to fight. This is pissing me off... Damn it." Gray grumbled, before noticing that Roxas wasn't doing anything. "Hey, you're at the same level as them, why don't you stop them?"

Roxas raised a brow at the thought. "You're kidding, right? I'm not getting between those two, I'm the neutral side of this triangle."

Gray stared at the blonde blankly. "Neutral...?"

"Triangle...?" Natsu echoed, staring at Roxas with the same amount of confusion as Gray.

"Yep, I'm somewhere between those two and I'd rather not get dragged into their war." Roxas confirmed with a nod, leaning back against the table he sat at. When the Takeover Siblings had joined Fairy Tail, Erza and Mira had taken an immediate disliking of each other. Then Mira had learned he sometimes went on missions with Erza and somehow he started to get dragged along on Mira's missions as well.

In other words, he was performing a balancing act where if he put too much on either side he'd fall. So, instead of walking two lines, he'd become a third and turned it all into a triangle. On one side of the triangle was Mira and her siblings. Another side had Erza with Gray and Natsu. Then the third side was Roxas, Cana, Stitch and if you counted him, Laxus.

"That boy is wise beyond his years." One of the older members commented, looking rather impressed. "I didn't figure out how to balance girls until I was an adult!"

Roxas stiffened slightly at the comment. Mainly because it was nothing like that.

"Hey, Natsu! Can I help you raise that egg too?" Roxas recognized the new voice as Lisanna, the youngest of the Takeover Siblings. She had white hair, just like Mira only her hair was far shorter and in a bowl cut and blue eyes to match her sister. Lisanna wore a pink collared dress with a pair of red shoes.

Scratching the back of his head, Roxas decided now would be a good time to make his escape, he had to check on Stitch since Gray obviously hadn't done so. He hadn't gotten far however.

"Hey, where's that cat of yours? Better not be building another bomb!" Roxas found himself turning his attention to one of the older members. Who was laughing at his own joke. He had dark blue hair spiked up a bit and dark eyes. The man wore a blue shirt with white slacks. His name was Macao Conbolt. Or as Roxas now dubbed him...

"Maybe he is Ashes, just for you." The blonde stated with a smirk, wondering which part would catch the man's attention first.

"Ashes?" Macao blinked, looking a little confused at the nickname.

Roxas nodded, his smirk seeming to grow. "Yeah, when a fire grows old and dies it leaves ashes, right?"

"Uh... I guess." Again the older man blinked before realization dawn on him. "Did you just call me old?!"

Before Macao could try to get back at the blonde Roxas had seemingly disappeared. He had an amused smirk on his face even though no one else would see it. Messing with the older people of the guild was fun, but when there was a possibility that a mad genius "cat" was making a bomb, there was no time to waste. After all, he didn't want Magnolia getting blown off the map by a seemingly indestructible cat.

* * *

><p>A few days after the business with the egg began, Laxus, a teenager that was a member of Fairy Tail had returned from a mission. Having only just returned, he was a bit out of the loop. "Huh? A dragon egg? Something like that wouldn't exist." He also didn't have much belief in dragons.<p>

Laxus Dreyar, grandson of Makarov and one of the few teens that were currently members of the guild. He had slightly messy blonde hair and dark gray eyes, one of which a jagged scar ran over. There was always a pair of headphones on his ears, magical in nature. A long black sleeved shirt was worn with a dark yellow tee shirt over it and some dark green pants.

Roxas and Laxus had been forced to go on a mission together once. Makarov had thought the mission would be too much for Laxus alone. After some argument between the munchkin and the teenager, Laxus had agreed to take someone along as long as he chose who it was. For some reason, Roxas had been the one to go along. It hadn't been too bad, in the end the two had formed a sort of mutual respect.

"Natsu did say he was raised by a dragon." Macao pointed out, although he himself looked more amused than believing.

"Yeah, like I buy that." Laxus stated dismissively, not about to suddenly start believing Natsu's story about being raised by a dragon.

"Make believe, dragons don't exist. Lisanna and Natsu made a little secret base to play at hatching." Wakaba, a friend of Macao's chimed in. He had brown hair styled into a pompadour and wore a pair of sunglasses. For clothes he wore an orange shirt with a beige jacket and some dark slacks.

"Lame." Laxus muttered before walking away from the older men.

"Man, to be a kid again." Macao grinned, putting his arms behind his head and taking no notice of the white haired demon nearby.

"They're all lovey-dovey!" Wakaba added with a small smile.

Roxas, who had been sitting at a table nearby, wisely choose to move out of the splatter zone. He was just in time to avoid the flying debris from the table as Mira chopped it in half out of anger. Well, the girl was going to find out eventually and she was bound to become angry. After all, her sister was playing house with someone from Erza's side of the triangle.

Deciding to get out of the war zone the guild was about to become, Roxas paused by the door to look at Stitch, who on the wall by the door. "No bombs... unless they're really asking for it. Got it?"

"Ih!" The blue cat that looked like a dog nodded in understanding.

Smirking, Roxas left what was quickly escalating into an all-out brawl.

* * *

><p>There were times when Roxas just needed a little time away from the guild. At those times, times like these, he would go out to the East Forest to hone his abilities. He did like the guild, he wouldn't have stayed if he didn't like it. However there was always times when he could use some time to himself. Particularly when he wanted to practice something that had been unique to his family, the one he'd spent most of his life with.<p>

Of course, there was one thing he didn't expect to find out in the forest.

"What happened to the lizard?" By lizard, Roxas was referring to Natsu, who had a large bump on his head.

Lisanna, who was holding the egg and crouched down by Natsu jumped at the new voice. She relaxed seeing it was Roxas however. "There was a Gorian that Natsu beat off without magic!"

"Oh?" Roxas raised a brow before poking Natsu with his stick. "So he can beat an over-sized monkey but he can't be a stick? That figures."

The younger girl gave a small laugh. Since she was usually on the missions Mira would drag him on, they'd become fairly well acquainted. Which meant she'd heard about how Roxas was able to beat Natsu with a stick on a daily basis.

"What are you doing here Roxas?" Lisanna asked curiously, innocent blue eyes looking straight at him.

"I was going to do some training..." He scratched the back of his head with his free hand before tilting his head up towards the sky. Some dark clouds were moving in. "Well, when Natsu wakes up you should get back to your little house. Looks like rain's coming in."

"Oh." The white haired girl looked up at the sky, then her gaze returned to Roxas and she smiled. "You're a good uncle!"

The blonde had been about to leave, but he paused at the statement. "Uncle?"

Lisanna's head bobbed up and down quickly. "You, Natsu and Gray are like brothers. So if Natsu's the dad, I'm the mom and the egg is a child, then you're an uncle."

Roxas raised a brow and smirked. "Guess you're right... make sure to stop by the guild tomorrow. Mira's been getting violent."

In the end, Roxas did manage to get some training in. He did so while it rained. There hadn't been much progress on his part, but he would keep practicing until he got it. It was something he had to get a handle on.

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><p>Lisanna and Natsu did stop by the guild the next day. Although it wasn't for a perfectly normal visit. Apparently the egg had gone missing overnight. Gray thought Natsu might've eaten it. Mira and Erza thought that the other had taken it. Things were starting to look violent.<p>

"You know, now that I think about it Elfman said something about wanting an egg like that." Cana admitted where she sat on a bench with Roxas as they watched the chaos unfold.

Roxas raised a brow at the brown haired girl. "Elfman, huh...?" Now that he thought of it, the only male and middle child of the Takeover Siblings was the only one missing of the younger Fairy Tail generation.

"Natsu... Lisanna... I'm sorry." Well speak of the devil, there he was holding the egg. Like his sisters he had white hair, his spiked up and his eyes were dark unlike his siblings' blue eyes. His skin was also a bit darker than the girls' as well. He wore a blue suit with a white shirt and a red bow tie.

Elfman went on to explain himself, how he had wanted to help out in secret and he'd been worried the egg would get cold at night. Natsu was a bit mad at Elfman for taking the egg. Lisanna however was grateful for her brother's help. Erza and Mira looked about to get into a fight for blaming each other for taking the egg.

Then a crack was heard, causing all activity to freeze and attention to be drawn to the egg.

The egg shook and cracked until finally, what had been in the egg seemed to just fly out in a bright blue light. When the light dissipated, things seemed to make less sense.

What had come out was a cat. A blue cat with white wings that just fluttered about for a moment until the wings disappeared and it landed on Natsu's head. Then, just to add to the confusion to those trying to make sense of things, it spoke. "Aye!"

"Happy the dragon!" Natsu announced, a huge grin on his face. Roxas didn't hear how that became the "dragon's" name, but it seemed oddly fitting for newest blue furball.

"He's not a dragon!" Several of the older members shouted.

"That's what you guys said about Stitch being a cat." Roxas pointed out with a grin. He simply couldn't help it.

At that, eyes traveled to the "cat" that sat on the table next to Roxas.

Stitch blinked innocently, tilting his head to the side slightly. "Meow?"

"First a blue cat that looks like a dog, now a blue dragon that looks like a cat with wings. What's next?" One of the guild members could be heard saying, making Roxas smirk.

The apartment was going to be even more crowded now. It was a good thing he'd been considering getting his own place recently.

* * *

><p><strong>So we got some reflection on how Roxas fits in with everyone. Roxas just loves to irritate people it would seem. I decided to make him the neutral ground between Mira and Erza's "teams" with Cana and Stitch... Heh, he's the gray between light and dark in that situation. A somewhat brotherly-mentor to Natsu and Gray I think, with just a hint of rivalry.<strong>

**Sorry I got this up a day late. I was putting the finishing touches on how Roxas came to be with the Organization in the first place-not that it has anything to do with the next ten or so chapters (at least not directly)-but it was bothering me so I had to write it all down on the growing notepad I have for this story.**

**Hmm... Well, you've probably read (unless you're like me jumping to the end of the page to read an AN for no particular reason), so the step after reading is reviewing... right? XD Well, it doesn't have to be a review, just give me a sign you care!**


	6. Glimpse of Darkness

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its affiliates nor do I own Fairy Tail.**

**In case you're wondering if there's a reason I said affiliates instead of just Kingdom Hearts, there is indeed a reason.**

**AirBorne3-Well Roxas was thinking about getting his own place at the end of the previous chapter. I'd say they each get their own place around the time each becomes a teenager respectively.  
>Fyrestarr-Funny thing is, until I started doing research for the last chapter I had completely forgotten Natsu thought Happy was a dragon.<br>duskrider-Trust me, Xion among other Kingdom Hearts characters will appear although circumstances may vary.  
>pokemonallstarfan-Don't forget they're both blue and fluffy! Stitch will prove a great danger to all enemies who cross his path, meanwhile Natsu will be trying turn burn a stick. A stick worthy of being a weapon, but a stick nonetheless.<br>Dragon Silhouette-My logic in regards to the stick and the umbrella, "Where there is a stick there will be an umbrella, where there is an umbrella, there will be a stick." Changes with Laxus and the Takeover Siblings may occur, or they may not. When Stitch succeeds, wallets will ache and there will be a massive crater with the indestructible "cat" sitting in the middle. As for the Fairy Tail story line, with my math becoming more solid we're looking at another seven chapters after this before we get to it.  
>Guestno4-T'why thank you.<strong>

**Coming up in this chapter, a mission, suspicions and a surprise announcement at the end!**

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><p>Another year had passed and Fairy Tail's destructive ability had continued to grow. This was mostly because the young generation of Fairy Tail was growing stronger, however they were also beginning to enter their teenage years. Possibly living proof that the generation was going to be something feared, Laxus had been promoted to S-class mage not long after Happy hatched out of his egg at the age of seventeen. Normally when one both undertook and passed the S-class exams they were an adult.<p>

Every morning before the sun reached his pillow Roxas was awake. Often he was already heading for the guild by the time the sun was on his pillow. This was no difficult feat for him as it took a while for the sun to get the right angle. There was also the fact that a blue furball fell onto him and woke him up every morning like clockwork. Why he allowed Stitch to get a shelf with a bed to sleep on that hung from the ceiling was beyond him.

Not long after the blue "dragon" Happy hatched from an egg Roxas had moved out and gotten his own place with the jewels he had from taking missions. Stitch of course had moved with Roxas, as the "cat" that looked like a dog was Roxas' cat after all. The rent was a hundred thousand jewels a month. Given that most of his jobs were with Erza and she paid the same for her own room at Fairy Hills, neither could complain. Although Erza was considering getting another room for storage purposes.

Roxas personally was all for it. Since the red head had started collecting armor and weapons for her Requip magic, she'd been losing space fast. It was already at the point where she had tried to convince him to let her keep a few of her armor sets in one of his closets. That girl would end up owning all of Fairy Hills someday, just to store all her armor. He just knew it.

After she had tried that, Roxas had taken to locking all doors and windows with magic. A regular lock couldn't stop her from breaking in, but a magical one could. Best part about magical locks however, was that he didn't need a key to get in. In other words, unlike Gray, he didn't have to worry about getting locked out of his own home.

The place Roxas now called home was pretty nice for someone in their early teenage years. It had a living room, kitchen, three bedrooms and two bathrooms all on one floor. Walls had been formed with bricks. Two walls were completely brick on either side, one with hooks the previous tenant had left and the other with doors to the rooms, bathrooms and one for the entrance. For the other two walls were large, arched windows that allowed for a great view of Magnolia.

It was located near the top of a clock tower by the train station. Hence how such a place was so cheap. Not many people could sleep through the hourly bells of the clock tower that went off every hour or the train horns going off all the time. But Roxas had slept through brawls that were much louder... plus he didn't have to wake up to the smell of something burning every day.

The floors were a dark cherry wood with the occasional rug. A counter surrounded most of the kitchen with a black table top and some black stools set up around it. Not far from the kitchen was a black table large enough for six people to be seated comfortably with some white chairs placed accordingly. For the fourth of the main room that wasn't taken up by the kitchen or the table was a large circular light gray rug with two dark gray arm chairs and a matching couch with a small glass coffee table in the middle.

For the record, he hadn't bought most of it himself. The previous tenant had been quick to move out and left everything for the landlord to deal with.

There were many advantages to being located where he was. First there was the view. Then there was the fact that he didn't have to worry about any would-be trespassers breaking in when he forgot to make use of his magical locks. What had become Roxas' early morning exercise, a long climb down the stairs, was a good deterrent for many. Finally there was his after mission tradition.

He still made a point of having ice cream after a mission. A collection of ice cream flavors had been growing in his freezer as a result. What he'd do after a mission was open a pair of windows that also functioned as a door and step out onto the wide ledge around his apartment with some ice cream and sit down to watch the sunset. Usually anyone he'd gone on a mission with would join him, which was becoming a tradition among the younger Fairy Tail generation in general with or without his mission participation.

The others found it to be a nice way to end the day. But for Roxas, it was more nostalgic than anything. It reminded him of his time with people he hadn't seen in over three years now.

* * *

><p>"So this is Thebes... looks like an unfortunate place." Erza stated, looking at the city before herself, Roxas and Stitch with pity. It almost looked like every possible misfortune possible had come through. Some still being present as shown by the rising smoke cloud of a fire somewhere in the distance. No crash was heard to be a source but a smoking tire rolled passed them as they walked through the city.<p>

"I think unfortunate would be an understatement." Roxas mumbled as he eyed the devastated city around them with a calm eye.

That had been bothering the red head in recent times. Little things she'd been taking notice of that the blonde did that was unusual. She knew he was hiding something, he never spoke of what happened to his family or anything, a lot like her in that sense. But there was more to it than that. Just watching him look at the city's suffering so calmly was one of those things.

She'd also notice when he decided to go training on his own and declining any and all offers for company to wherever it was he went. There were situations most would act to differently from how he did, like when they first encountered Stitch. It had almost been like he'd known something. Looking back she had noticed other odd little things the blonde did or said.

It was something he'd always do but she'd never really noticed until lately. Maybe she'd been too young or something then, but now she could see the oddities clearly. He wasn't limited to training alone and seemingly knowing things no one else did. There were times where the blonde himself would act a bit darker than usual in a way that couldn't quite be explained.

They had come to Thebes on a mission to put a stop to the city's misfortune. Which meant there was likely a source causing trouble of some sort. The request hadn't had many details but there hadn't been many requests on the board so everyone was just taking what they could get. Hence why she, Roxas and Stitch had taken a two day train trip to Thebes. Not very good first impressions so far.

"So the request said the problem could be found at the coliseum that's in the middle of the city..." Roxas murmured and scratched the back of his head as they walked. "I'm assuming that would be the big building in front of us."

Indeed, the building before them was quite massive. It had been constructed of light brown stone and stood taller than most of the city's still-standing buildings despite damages. Sections of wall had crumbled-actually it looked like something huge might have stepped on the walls, making it crumble. What might have been braziers that stood at the entrance had been buried in stone. A stone head could be made out, suggesting there had been statues as well.

Exchanging looks the young mages nodded to each other before heading into the coliseum. Coming out to find themselves in the stands, looking down into the arena. Or at least what had been an arena. The majority of the inside of the coliseum was falling apart. In what had been arena was two figures, both of which stood out for varying reasons.

One had completely gray skin. He had yellow eyes with very dark circles around his eyes. For hair he had a plume of blue fire rising up. To add to the strange man's appearance, he wore a black toga of all things.

The other had ginger hair combed back with a band to keep it in place and blue eyes. He was an incredibly muscular man, the picture of health when compared to the other man. Although his attire was somewhat questionable, wearing some leather armor that gave him the appearance of a gladiator, which made sense given that this was a coliseum.

The gray skinned man seemed to get the upper hand for a second and the gladiator went down. Taking the opening he'd created the gray skinned man closed the distance between them in second and with a hand full of fire was about to finish off the gladiator. For a second the ground seemed to shake in a possible aftershock of an earthquake the city had gotten earlier that day.

* * *

><p><em>Meanwhile, back at Fairy Tail<em>

A panicky looking skinny as a stick man ran into the guild. He had wild black hair and a beard and it looked like a strand of his hair was on fire. The strange man in a baggy torn up shirt and shredded shorts went straight to the request board. Eyes traveled from request to request but when he didn't find what he was looking for he ran towards the short old man at the bar known to most as Makarov.

"Where's the request for help in Thebes?!" The panicked man asked urgently, twitching slightly with what might have been fear.

Makarov raised a brow at the man. "A couple of our younger mages accepted it. Why?"

The scream the man gave would make you think someone had died. When he calmed down enough-to explain anyways-he took a shaky breath. "That request... has gone up to S-ranked!"

* * *

><p><em>Back to the coliseum<em>

The two young Fairy Tail mages intervened before the gray skinned man could strike down the gladiator. Some instinct inside them knew who the hero was in this situation. A chilling aura seemed to come from the gray skinned man despite all his fire. It was as if he wielded the freezing flames of hell itself. As if he were death itself.

They had jumped from the stands and ran faster than they ever had before. Erza took up a defensive position in front of the fallen man, holding up her sword before her with narrowed eyes. Roxas meanwhile almost cut the gray-skinned man's hand off with and held his weapon pointed forward in an offensive stance.

"Can you stand?" Erza asked the gladiator, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Yeah." The gladiator grunted as he forced himself back to his feet. He then looked at the two young saviors with a curious eye. "Who are you guys?"

Erza focused her gaze back on the gray skinned man. "Erza Scarlet."

"Roxas, no surname. We're from Fairy Tail." Roxas didn't take his eyes off the man that seemed like death itself. "You and your friend here?"

"You two...?" The man shook his head in disbelief. "I'm Hercules. That over there is a guy that claims to be a god called Hades."

"Hey, it's not a claim, it's a fact Jerk-ules." The gray skinned man stated, eyes narrowing in disdain. He leveled a hand to his mouth and gave a whistle.

"Not again." Hercules gritted his teeth, getting into a fighting stance.

"What?" Erza readied her sword, not sure what to expect as the ground shook once more. Maybe they weren't aftershocks after all.

"You two should get out of here." Hercules stated, trying to step forward only to be stopped by a hard look from the red head.

"We're not leaving you to fight alone here." Roxas stated, still having not so much as turned to look at what went on behind him. "We're stronger than we look. We can help."

The gladiator seemed to pick up on their resolve to fight and didn't argue. "Fine, but our fraud and liar Hades here to me. You guys hold off his dog."

With one last massive shake, the shaking had stopped and a massive, snarling and growling black mass had come into the coliseum through one of the larger gaps that had been put in the coliseum. There were three massive heads with a pair of glowing red eyes and massive pointed teeth for each head. A three headed dog of all things.

"Let me guess..." Roxas stated with a deadpan, looking at the so-called god. "His name is Cerberus."

Hercules stepped up, punching a fist into his open palm, a large bright, golden magic circle appearing before the man. "God Slayer's Art: God's Strength." The magic circle seemed to evaporate into a mist that surrounded the gladiator, giving him a glowing layer.

"God Slayer, huh? Seems like a bit of overkill for a fraud." Roxas stated absently before turning his attention to the giant three headed dog. Keyblade in hand possibly one of the better choices given the situation. "Odd that his magic isn't tinted with black though..." He murmured the last part, Erza guessing that it was yet another thing the blonde seemed to know more about than some others.

The Keyblade had a white handle with a black pommel. A black guard that had rectangular spikes with a thin line of orange along the edges that didn't connect with the handle at the bottom. For the shaft was a short off-white cone. Like the handle, the head of the weapon was black with a thin line of orange along the edge. Its teeth were rectangular in shape but varied in size and reached halfway down the shaft with another similar protrusion on the back. Coming from the pommel of the weapon was a chair with a black and orange token that looked like a broken cog.

Erza recognized that Keyblade as Glimpse of Darkness from the many missions both she and the blonde had undertaken together. It was a broader weapon that made defending easier and was capable of heavy blows. Not very efficient in cutting but good for general damage. One of the better choices when they were taking on a giant three headed dog.

"Ready Erza?" The blonde asked as he adjusted his grip on the Keyblade, getting a feel for the weight no doubt.

The red head nodded, stepping up by her fellow Fairy Tail member's side. Despite her weariness, Roxas was still a dependable ally in battle and still her friend. "Any plan?"

Roxas shrugged, taking a test swing with his Keyblade. "You take the left, I take the right. Lure the middle and try to make the heads hurt each other as the middle takes the bait."

"Simple enough." Raising her blade Erza wondered if the monster of a dog was going to be a challenge.

The pair nodded each other before charging at the huge dog. When they got close the dog attempted to crush them under a paw but they split up and avoided the attack.

Roxas had jumped up towards the right, getting just high enough to tap the right head's before landing on the ground. The move had been more or less just to get that head's attention so it would come down to his level. It worked, the right snapping at him and forcing the blonde to sidestep the attack and swing down with what strength he could muster and managed to create a gash on the right head's snout. A growl from the pain and an angrier head was what Roxas got as a response.

Erza meanwhile had leaped onto the paw that had tried to crush them and ran up the length of the limb. When she was high enough she jumped onto Cerberus' left shoulder and then onto the head that was her target. Quickly, before it could shake her off she plunged her sword down into the left head' right eye. A small howl and the head shook itself furiously, forcing her to hold on for dear life as the middle head took notice of the damaged eye. The middle head lunged at her, forcing her to release her hold on the sword she'd been using as it was stuck.

Landing on the ground she noticed Roxas was faring a bit better. While he hadn't attracted the middle head's attention, multiple gashes were visible on the right head. Meanwhile she now had two heads and no sword-at the moment-to deal with. Gritting her teeth she knew she'd have to make this her quickest Requip yet. She'd been improving her speed with it, but even still just getting another sword took a few seconds she really might not be able to afford.

Avoiding the lunge of the middle head, Erza reached out with her right hand. A ripple in the air and a golden glow visible as she reached into her pocket space. Pulling her hand out revealed another sword, this one broader than the one she'd lost. The action had almost taken too long as the left head tried to take a snap at her. She managed to react just in time to raise her sword in a defensive move. In result, she'd lost another sword as the left head reeled back from the new sword in its mouth.

The middle head lunged at her again and this time there was no time for her to react and she felt herself freeze up. Was this how it would end...?

She'd forgotten the monster of a blonde she'd come to Thebes with. Suddenly the right head was knocked into the middle, knocking it off course and saving her. Looking to Roxas she could see he was getting tired from using the heavy Keyblade. There was also a small gash on his shoulder but aside from that he seemed to be doing alright.

"Last person I'd expect to freeze up." Roxas commented as he raised his Keyblade so it pointed at the disoriented heads. A light blue glow had surrounded the weapon in a preparation for something familiar to those that had fought beside the blonde enough. "Blizzara!"

The glow that had been around the weapon coalesced at the tip of the Keyblade and then fired at the formerly identical heads. Once the light made contact the ear of the right head and the nose of the middle head got frozen together as ice expanded around that area. This brought pain to the two heads when they tried to move apart, bringing them both to a halt.

She could hear Roxas' breathing a bit. Keyblade spells tended to take a bit out of him. Level one as he called some of them was something he could normally shrug off with a single use. A level two however like Blizzara took more naturally. With the condition Roxas was already in, it only served to worsen the blonde's condition. Even so, he raised his Keyblade, as if about to fire another Blizzara.

"Another one?" Erza raised a slightly worried brow at her companion.

"Until we have this guy immobilized, we're at the disadvantage here. If I can freeze the heads together enough we should be in the clear." Roxas stated, allowing the light blue glow to engulf the Keyblade again.

While the blonde was right, Erza wondered just how many Blizzara spells it would take and if Roxas could handle the strain. But looking at his determined eyes, she knew he wasn't about to back down from his choice. Something he always did, once he made a decision he couldn't be swayed. An admirable but sometimes worrisome trait he had.

In the end she watched as he released Blizzara after Blizzara. Amounting to fifteen times using the spell before nearly falling. He must've used a lot of magic power for all those icy spells. He'd told her once that the more he practiced the easier it would get for him to use, however he hadn't been practicing the use of the Keyblade's spells much. Any other time and she'd wonder exactly what he was practicing when he was alone. However, at the moment she was more worried for her friend.

Cerberus was covered in patches of ice that left it immobile. The left head had gotten frozen and stuck to the middle's neck while the right was still frozen to the middle's snout. All three head had been frozen into place several more times and then the paws had been frozen together as well. After the fifteenth Blizzara Cerberus had lost balance and fallen to the ground. It would be a while until it defrosted enough to be a danger again, ice from the Keyblade tended to be longer lasting than normal ice.

She'd been about to go help the blonde when he used the Keyblade to steady himself.

He turned to her and despite the clear exhaustion he we experiencing he smiled. "How about we go help Hercules next?"

Honestly, that boy didn't know when to quit. But he did have a point, the mission wasn't over yet.

So, with the monster dog no longer able to cause trouble, the Fairy Tail mages returned to Hercules' side, just in time to see the God Slayer knock the alleged god back with a hard punch to the gut.

Looking incredibly mad now, Hades' rage boiled over. His skin turned red and his blue fiery hair turned to red and yellow. "You think you can beat me?! Hah! I am a god! Nothing you can do will-"

An odd looking sphere rolled to Hades' feet causing confusion to the alleged god and God Slayer. Then it exploded, sending Hades flying into a wall.

Falling out of the Hades shaped hole in the wall, the man looked up at them, pushing himself up with shaking arms. "What...?"

Roxas smirked as a certain blue furball appeared by his feet. "You have your dog, I have my cat."

* * *

><p>Another thing aside from Roxas and Erza's mission that got bumped up to S-ranked had been stirring the guild up the past few days. It was that time of year when Fairy Tail held the S-Class exams. Makarov was going to be announcing the candidates now, hence why the whole guild was now gathered. Aside from the mages gone on long-term missions anyways.<p>

Roxas had honestly not been listening to the listed names. He'd figured he wouldn't be called since he was of unknown age and possibly not even a teenager yet. Sure, he and Erza had succeeded in that mission that got bumped up but could it really count when they had been helped by a God Slayer?

So when he heard his name he was surprised.

"Roxas."

* * *

><p><strong>Hmm... so Erza's getting uneasy. We met Hercules the God Slayer of Thebes. Roxas is taking the S-class exams. Also, is anyone else wondering if Roxas is going to say: "Sorry, I already know a Hades." in the future?<strong>

**Now, since I'm thinking about it thanks to all your lovely reviews and some messages I've been getting, I'm going to clarify some things about upcoming chapters. Chapter thirteen is likely to be the last chapter before we get to the Fairy Tail story. There will be a total of four Kingdom Hearts exclusive characters (wonder if there's a trio in that four...) that will appear in this time frame and a few others will be mentioned. Also, Stitch will not be the only non-exclusive character to appear, as this chapter showed with Hercules, Hades and Cerberus.**

**Anyways, review, send me a message, contact me somehow and let me know what you thought about the chapter. Too much description? Not enough description? Or do you maybe have an idea for the story you want to share? Remember, I only have the skeleton of the story as it stands at the moment with some parts thoroughly planned out and others that haven't been touched, I'd be more than happy if any of you have ideas you want to share.**


	7. True Light's Flight

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything by the names of Fairy Tail or Kingdom Hearts.**

**Dragon Silhouette-Well, it is a clock tower. A place of memories throughout time. Also, don't be sad, never said this would be our last trip to Thebes and like you said, more characters will be appearing and some may just appear in different places. As for Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden, there is something in place. Then Mulan, I think it would be more likely she was raised by the "Great Stone Dragon" then somehow got stuck with Mushu (a "lizard"), her horse Khan and Cri-Kee (the cricket)... not that that means anything! Atlantica, let's think back to the play Team Natsu helped at one point through their destructive tendencies.  
>I don't believe Mystogan joined yet, pretty sure Gildarts is wandering around Fiore somewhere. I figure there were other S-class mages but they retired or went on to make their own guild. Could it be that there are Kingdom Hearts characters aside from Roxas in Fairy Tail already...? I don't know, are there? It is good that you're suspicious of me, because you'll never expect some of the things I have planned. *Evil cackle.* No, that four does not include Roxas. As for Ventus, well, we'll see or maybe we won't if he doesn't even appear.<strong>

**AirBorne3-Actually I felt there was a bit too much description too. Also, given that I have Stitch, a UBB (Unidentified Blue Being), I don't see why I wouldn't add another such as Genie as some point.**

**DPSS-Well, Roxas is presumably in his early teens here, I don't want to make him an all-powerful however-many-years old. Dual wielding hasn't been displayed yet for reasons to be explained in a future chapter, chapter ten to be precise if everything fits alright. In this chapter however we do have the S-Class exams, which means Roxas' current level of skill will be displayed a bit better now and I will be traversing beyond the basic spells.**

**duskrider-I don't see why Jack couldn't have both.**

**fyrestarr-Aye, Hercules the God Slayer. Then there's the uninterrupted S-class exams, of which I'm excited about the location more than anything else.**

**Onward! To the exams! Which is _not_ on Tenrou Island by the way, we'll be land-locked... wonder what kind of reactions you all will have...**

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><p>Honestly, had he known he'd be going to a <em>savanna <em>of all places, he'd have worn something that could camouflage him better. Instead he was wearing dark colors and had a blue furball by his side. They'd blend in if there was a dark storm cloud overhead or something... but there wasn't a cloud in the sky right now. The sun was already starting to beat down on them mercilessly as well. What had the Midget been thinking when he chose this as the location for the exams? That he'd kill all the participants in one go?

An even better question was, where was the thing he was looking for?

Was this really Midget's idea of a trial? A scavenger hunt in a savanna? It seemed more likely that everyone would disappear never to be seen again looking for their assigned object than to be successful. The range for this exam was also ridiculous, there was a huge amount of space for them to work with. He hadn't seen anyone since the beginning of the first test. Something that didn't bode well.

This was the kind of place a powerful species of lion or something would be waiting for them... Lions that lived in prides... So that's why it was called the Pride Lands.

Roxas slapped his forehead at his own stupidity. Two hours into the exam and it took him until now to do the math. They were given until sundown to find their assigned objects at least. This exam had started when the sun had started rising. Already the heat of the sun was getting a bit uncomfortable.

Where could he find a hornbill with blue feathers anyway?

Casting his eyes about his surroundings, Roxas tried to think. This test seemed to be trying his patience and checking for intelligence. Maybe testing his luck too. He was looking for a bird, so maybe trees would be good places to start looking. Not that there were many trees to check though. Given the rising temperature, quenching thirst would be important for everything really. A tree with a water source nearby then...?

Using his hand to shield his eyes from the sun, he scanned the savanna as far as he could see. Just about anything would do, a group of animals moving in a particular direction, a water source, some trees, preferably all three.

The question here was, why did it take him so long to notice the almost mountainous collection of rocks? It wasn't that there was a lot of rocks, it was more like several huge rocks had gotten piled together. What looked like a waterhole was fairly close to the collection, he could see several animals around it drinking their fill. Some trees stood nearby and he could see birds fluttering about. By far his best bet at the moment.

"Come on Stitch." Shoving his hands into his pockets Roxas began the journey to the watering hole with his faithful companion by his side. It would be a long day if he ended up having to search everywhere for a bird of all things. Hopefully his fellow competitors also had moving targets as well to make it fair. It would also increase the chances of encountering them. An encounter meant a fight, which would thin out the competition. Whether you fought someone you encountered or not wasn't an option either.

A type of Letter Magic had been used to keep all exam participants within the savanna, however the Letter Magic was also helping to enforce rules. So if he were to come within a certain distance of another competitor they'd be locked into a limited space until one of them gave up or weren't able to continue. Makarov hadn't specified the distance irritatingly enough, probably on purpose just to make them all paranoid.

One of the older members of Fairy Tail had helped set up the Letter Magic with help from their student, both practitioners of Letter Magic but neither were usually at the guild. Roxas had met the student once, a kid with green hair named Freed if he recalled correctly. He didn't know Freed or the kid's magic very well since student and teacher weren't normally at the guild at the same time as him. Even so, he knew that some forms of Letter Magic were near impossible to break through.

Even if one had a magic that specialized in unlocking things, like Roxas himself. Unless the particular word sequence had word "Lock" or something along those lines, he'd be helpless against it. Not even that wasn't a guarantee since he'd never had to counter any form of Letter Magic.

Shaking his head of thoughts concerning Letter Magic, he focused on the task at hand. Finding a hornbill with blue feathers.

The waterhole had a wide variety of animals. Elephants, flamingos, giraffes, lions and other various animals. He could even see a warthog in the mix, although the other animals seemed to be avoiding it which would suggest the warthog was the source of a barely tolerable smell. Honestly, he felt just a tad bit queasy as it was thanks to that smell.

"Stitch, see any hornbills with blue feathers?" Roxas spoke lowly, trying to avoid notice of the animals as much as he could. He looked with his eyes, mostly at the trees nearby that were feeding off the water source. So far, he wasn't seeing what he was looking for, but he didn't have eyes like the little blue bombshell.

In response Stitch jumped up onto Roxas' shoulder and began scanning the area as well. It was almost like Roxas was a pirate in a golden see with a cat on his shoulder instead of a bird. The resemblance was a bit uncanny.

The moment was broken however when Stitch seemed to spot something and jumped off the blonde's shoulder. He quickly scuttled off towards the waterhole intent on whatever it was he had spotted. For a cat, the blue furball was far from subtle. Just brushing against a long and thin leg had enough force to knock a flamingo over. Sometimes Roxas forgot just how strong the little guy was.

Stitch took a turn for the stealthy however as he neared the group of lions. Specifically the large golden male that had a bright, fiery red mane. Although what Roxas had failed to notice until then was the bird on the lion's head. A bird with white belly feathers, a gold beak that ended red at the tip and the part that really caught Roxas' attention was the blue feathers it had from its head to the tail feathers. Almost exactly what they'd been looking for.

Well, actually Makarov never specified that all the bird's feathers had to be blue. He only said it had to have blue feathers.

On the bird's part, the mistake was fluttering away from the lion. The moment it had separated itself from its lion friends, Stitch had grabbed the poor bird, using one arm to keep the beak shut. He then quickly made his getaway, disappearing into the tall grasses and eventually returning to Roxas. Most useful furball there ever was.

The cat looked up at the blonde expectantly, making him chuckle before kneeling and patting the cat's head. "Good work. Now we can head to our assigned meeting point and have time to spare." A thoughtful look crossed Roxas' face before adding, "Also, think you could make a paint bomb?"

* * *

><p><em>Two hours later, gorge<em>

"Did we really need such a wide space?" Roxas grumbled, plopping himself down on a rock. He couldn't believe how long it had taken to get there. It wasn't like he was bad with directions or anything, just a vast distance. About half the contestants were normally eliminated after the first trial, but this might eliminate more than that. Scavenger hunt with the added vast distances, heat and time limit was sure to take numerous people out.

His meeting point was marked with a blue feather painting to coincide with his object of search. He was in a gorge of all places too. At least he had some shade from the sun thanks to the rocky walls that lined said gorge. It had gotten a lot warmer in the last two hours he'd spent trying to find his meeting point. The sweat on his face was evidence enough.

"Congratulations, you're the first to finish the trial."

Swiping at some sweat on his forehead, Roxas looked at the source to see Makarov. Or it looked like the Midget anyways, but the blonde suspected it was a magical hologram. "How many have passed out from heatstroke, Midget?"

Makarov's right eye twitched at the nickname. "One."

"More on the way then?" The blonde raised a brow before closing his eyes. It was tempting to just take a nap right there.

A sigh was heard from the maybe hologram. "Probably. We've lost one to heatstroke, one to an encounter." The midget shook his head before focusing on the young blonde. "Well, let's see that bird."

"Stitch, show him the bird." Roxas mumbled, but he knew the cat would understand.

Stitch came out from his cover by a cluster of rocks, walking on his back legs since he was holding the bird. The bird's beak wasn't held shut anymore though.

"I say, this is the worst treatment I have experienced in years!" A grim reminder of why Stitch had been keeping the bird's beak shut. "When I get back to King Mufasa I'll-"

Stitch wrapped one of his paws around the bird's beak to shut him up.

"Midget, meet Zazu. Adviser to Mufasa, current king of the lion pride here in the Pride Lands." Roxas muttered, rubbing his forehead to ease a growing headache. "Although I think he's the royal pain."

Again, Makarov's eye was twitching only now it was an incredulous twitch. The boy and his cat had bird-napped a royal adviser! Granted, he hadn't realized there was a Monarchy in the Pride Lands and the boy and his cat probably hadn't either at first, but still!

Taking a closer look at the bird Makarov noticed the bird wasn't completely blue. "There's some white feathers."

Roxas raised a brow at the magical Midget. "You said it had to be a hornbill with blue feathers. He had blue feathers as well as white and some black feather tips. But if you won't allow the loophole, if you want all the feathers blue I had Stitch make this on the way here." The blonde held up a suspicious looking orb held together with some tall savanna grass. "It's a blue paint bomb. All he needed was some berries, a large seed or pod casing and a few other things to make it."

Zazu's eyes seemed to pop out of their sockets at the contraption, mostly out of fear.

Makarov was quick to wave his hands in a pacifying matter. "No! No! The loophole is fine! You're right!"

The young teen smirked slightly. There might be glowing green footprints on his ceiling, but he would never regret taking Stitch in. "So now I wait until sundown for the next test or something?"

"Pretty much. You three won't be able to leave the area either. Take this time to rest." With that Makarov disappeared, so he was a hologram after all.

A sigh escaped Roxas as he considered what to do. It was just him, a cat, a bird and a blue paint bomb. They were in a nice patch of shade but it was still getting warmer. What was he to do for the next eight or nine hours?

* * *

><p><em>Later, sundown<em>

The sight that would greet anyone who went to Roxas' spot, would be in great contrast to what it had been at the beginning of the day. Rock walls were covered in patches of ice now. A small pool had formed from the melted ice where the ground dipped a bit. It was almost like a war zone where the only ammunition had been ice. Although the only one to have fired any shots was a certain blonde.

In the small pool was Stitch playing in the water. An odd sight given that he was a cat but this was paid no mind. The unfortunate bird Zazu was laying on a rock, appearing unconscious. Then Roxas was sitting on the ground leaning back against a rock. He appeared to be asleep actually.

For the magical Makarov hologram, he wanted to hit himself. He should've known the boy would do something like this.

"So, I'm guessing the point of making me sit here was to tire me out or something...?" Roxas cracked an eye open to look at the hologram. "Or maybe a test to see if I can support myself in a difficult situation?"

"Only two others are still in this." Makarov stated, ignoring Roxas' questions. "Your next test is to keep the client, Zazu, safe from an enemy."

"I see." The young blonde narrowed his eyes, pushing himself up to his feet as the hologram disappeared. His eyes shifted towards the cat in the water, who was looking at Roxas expectantly. "Stitch, take the bird and go. Find a place to hide and if all else fails, fight."

"Ih!" Stitch nodded before scuttling over to the unconscious bird and picking him up in one arm and using the remaining arm and two legs to make an escape.

That was when Roxas spotted a figure standing above at the top of the gorge, just before it moved to attack Stitch and Zazu.

Roxas held out his hand, shadow seemingly clustering around it as he began to run. "Oblivion..." He moved to intercept the figure, raising his shadow filled hand. A moment before an electrified fist made contact with Roxas, the shadow had been replaced with a solid object. "Missing Ache." The black and chartreuse Keyblade he used fairly often had stopped the attack, Roxas only getting pushed back slightly from the impact.

"So, you're my opponent then." Roxas mused, looking at his attacker.

The two combatants broke apart, the attacker grinned.

"Well, we always did say we'd have to measure our strength against each other someday." The attacker was an older blonde. He wore a plain dark yellow tee shirt with dark green cargo pants. A scar over his left eye was possibly his most identifying feature.

"That we did. I just didn't think it would be in this kind of situation, Laxus." Roxas admitted, pointing his Keyblade at the youngest of the current S-class mages in Fairy Tail.

Before Roxas could even blink Laxus was behind him. The younger blonde didn't even get the chance to brace himself when a palm was placed on his back and cry was introduced to his body. A slight cry of pain escaped Roxas. It wasn't the first time he'd been shocked like this, with lightning, but it had been a while though.

It could've been minutes or seconds. But eventually Laxus pulled back, likely expecting Roxas to collapse there. The younger blonde did lean forward, as if about to fall, however he seemed to snap out of the daze the shock had caused him right then. With a mighty swing, the Keyblade made contact with Laxus' side.

With the older blonde forced back a bit Roxas turned and backed away a bit so he could get a good look at Laxus. "It'll take more than a shock to do me in."

Holding out Missing Ache much like he would when summoning a Keyblade in the first place, Roxas focused on getting a different version of the weapon out. Missing Ache wasn't much good in this fight. But he did have an idea worth trying. "Oblivion: True Light's Flight!" Roxas called out, the Keyblade called Missing Ache glowed and the shape seemed to change. When the light dissipated, the Keyblade had taken a new form.

The new Keyblade form had a dark blue-green handle framed with a black guard that had a long spike coming out of each corner. It had a long and thin silver shaft that narrowed near the end before widening only to end in a point. Like all Keyblades it had its teeth near the end, where the shaft narrowed before the tip. Its teeth were in the shape of an arrowhead but only in frame with an opposing spike coming out of the other side of the shaft. On a thin chain connected to the hand a token hung, it was frame-like much like the weapon's teeth only it was more diamond in shape.

This didn't deter Laxus from his attack however, throwing a punch that sent the Keyblade flying out of Roxas' hands. The Keyblade landed tip first in the ground.

"Guess I'll be ending this now." A spear of lighting formed in Laxus' hand. "Sorry, guess you fail." With those parting words the lightning spear was sent flying towards the younger blonde.

Much to Laxus' shock however, his lightning veered off course and into the Keyblade that was sticking out of the ground. "A conductor?" But that hadn't happened with the previous form of the Keyblade... but maybe that was just it. The difference in Keyblade forms. It had never been mentioned whether the different Keyblade forms had a difference other than appearance. "Was that your plan?"

Roxas held up his hand and in a flash of light the Keyblade had disappeared from the ground and reappeared in his hand. A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. "Actually, it was just a lucky guess."

"That so?" Laxus grinned and raised his own hand, electricity dancing about him in a dangerous manner. "Guess I'll just have to take a direct approach then."

"Guess so." Roxas readied the Keyblade once more, adjusting his grip so it was held in both hands.

Without another word Laxus bolted towards Roxas, a bit too fast for the blonde to stop with a block. But the younger blonde wasn't limited to blocking and dodging in this situation. With the Keyblade already pointed in the direction of his attacker, a simple command was needed. The word was spoke in the few seconds between Laxus beginning an attack and the distance between the two. Had the word been said a moment later that distance would've been closed and Roxas more likely than not injured.

"Aero!"

A blast of wind flew out of the tip of the Keyblade sending the speeding Lightning Magic user flying up. Knowing better than to give Laxus a moment to recover, Roxas took his left hand off the handle and pulled his right arm back before hurling the Keyblade itself at the still airborne Laxus. The older blonde saw the weapon coming and raised his arms, taking the brunt of the attack. Taking the hit from the weapon had knocked him out of the wind current and allowed him to land on his feet on a rocky outcropping.

"Why don't you give up?" Laxus asked, breathing heavily with bruises forming where the Keyblade had made contact. Blood dripped from the scratches the weapon had also inflicted. Not like his opponent was much better.

"Because," Roxas stumbled slightly getting back into a battle ready stance. His clothes were a bit torn up and his exposed skin had burns from the electricity. "If that bird's my client I need to protect him. Every moment I give them is another moment of safety." He lifted his hand as the Keyblade reappeared so it pointed up towards the night sky where the stars had long since appeared. A soft glow seemed to emanate from the weapon.

The older blonde narrowed his eyes, not liking the motion of the younger. He charged up his fist. "I don't know what you're doing, but you're not going to win this!" With that the lightning user charged forward.

"Try it!" Beads of light seemed to float around Roxas. His Keyblade suddenly looked as if it was completely made out of light itself and was longer than before. With a sudden burst of speed he bolted at Laxus, swinging the blade in rapid succession. The speed was enough to leave the older blonde with no time to react.

When the attack was over, Laxus collapsed to the ground.

Roxas himself appeared dazed for a moment as the Keyblade disappeared. With the last of his power drained from the final attack, he joined Laxus on the ground. He was almost tempted to fall asleep right there.

"What... was that...?" Laxus breathed, shifting his head to the side to look at Roxas.

The younger blonde to a shaky breath. "Event Horizon. A close to last resort." He didn't add that it was an attack powered purely by Light Magic. It had used the majority of the magic he had left in reserve.

"Close to last?" A weak chuckle escaped the older. "I'd hate to be on the receiving end of your true last resort then."

"You two sure did a number on this place." Hologram Makarov had returned... or was it the real one? "You'd go pretty far for others, I can see that." He was looking down at Roxas, who barely had his eyes open. "You pass."

* * *

><p><em>Later that night<em>

"Well everyone, let's rest up! We have a long journey back home and then, a celebration!" Makarov declared with a wide grin. Once Roxas and Laxus had been dragged back to the camp and patched up, the Midget had announced to everyone present that Roxas had proven himself ready to be an S-class mage and passed the exam.

His words were met with cheers from the majority of guild members before everyone disbanded and went about their activities. The camp was a circle of tents with a large fire in the middle with various things to sit on around it. Roxas himself had taken a log to sit on.

"You don't seem eager to get back." Laxus stated, falling into place on the log Roxas was seated on. The older blonde raised a brow at the younger.

"Well, I'm not going back." At the slightly alarmed looked in Laxus' eyes, Roxas hastily added, "Not yet anyways. I was reminded of something during our fight. It'll be like a training trip down memory lane I guess." Roxas offered a small shrug, watching as Stitch terrorized the green haired boy Freed.

For a long moment, Laxus was silent. "Something to do with your other family?"

Roxas' eyes drifted over towards the fire. "You could say that."

* * *

><p><strong>There we have it. Kind of short for such an accomplishment but given what's coming in the next couple chapters... well I'll give you all a hint, we're taking a trip to Dark City. Mentioned Freed briefly, brought Zazu into the mix, poor guy. Something I simply couldn't resist. Also, sorry for delaying the update by a week and a few days. Papers and stuff, plus I wanted to make sure this chapter turned out well and not accidentally filled with facts about genetically modified organisms or history vs. science debate. The main thing that slowed me down was putting the fight scene together though... not my expertise. Probably should've been a longer scene too given how tired they were at the end.<strong>

**It occurs to me that after chapter thirteen or fourteen I'll probably put up a poll for all your opinions on something regarding this fic. Only after one of those chapters and if all my tiebreaker polls to determine the order by which I write Kingdom Hearts crossovers are done. There may be two actually. I don't know why I'm saying this when we're still six or seven chapters away from then though...**

**Anyways, review, send me a message or something. All forms of feedback are appreciated.**


	8. Midnight Roar

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Fairy Tail or anything in between.**

**AirBorne3-Well, I won't say the 100 Acre Woods will or won't appear. It is a possibility.**

**Ultimate Black Ace-Well, they would have similar magic... but we'll find out eventually... maybe...**

**Guest-Well, it was partially Freed's fault they were stuck in a gorge for hours. So it wasn't unreasonable terrorizing. Then yes, Dark City is our next stop.**

**Dragon Silhouette-I should've kept my mouth shut about Mulan... unless it was a trick... heheh. In the current timeline, Simba hasn't even been born yet. As for the fight, I'll probably go back some time to fix it. Then for Dark City, we got two parts!**

**What better way to commemorate becoming an S-class mage than taking an S-ranked request that happens to go to a familiar place? After an explanation of what the blonde was up to and a small look at Roxas' time before Fairy Tail. This is going to take two chapters, mainly because of how long the first part of this chapter is.**

* * *

><p>For a little over two months Roxas had been absent from Fairy Tail and Magnolia as a whole. He hadn't even come back after the exams to pack a bag or anything. He'd gone a different way with his cat Stitch to who knows where. When he returned the previous day, Natsu had been the first to see him. Although that was more or less because the Fire Dragon Slayer had been waiting outside the blonde's home, wanting to be the first to challenge the new S-class mage.<p>

Natsu had promptly gotten beaten in a single hit to the head with a stick.

The rest of that day had been spent at the guild hall, welcoming the new S-class mage back with a party. Quite a few asked where the blonde had disappeared to and what he'd been doing for the last couple months but he always gave vague answers. Some would challenge Roxas to a battle only to get beaten with a stick. In the end however, many had started to wonder when the newest mage to reach S-class in Fairy Tail would take a mission of the same rank.

It was probably why there was a knocking on his door so early in the morning.

"Who is it?" Roxas called to whoever was knocking on the other side of his door. He was currently laying on his couch and relaxing. Having not gotten much sleep thanks to the late night, he'd been tempted to take a nap. That idea had likely just been shot before it could take off however.

A familiar voice that belonged to a red head was heard. "It's Erza. I-"

"Oi! Don't forget about me you damn tin can!" A second voice yelled, the sound of someone hitting a brick wall being heard. No doubt it was Mira.

"What do you think I was trying to do?!" Was Erza's retort and the sound of a body hitting the front door was heard.

He knew reinforcing the walls and door with magic was a good idea.

Sighing and sitting up, Roxas looked towards the door and reaching up with his right hand. A silvery gold glittering magic circle appeared at his fingertips before condensing into the shape of a keyhole. With a simple tap on the keyhole a distinct click was heard and the door was swung open from the force of the two fighting girls as they fell into the apartment.

At least to impact had broken up the fight.

"You two better not break anything here, I'm low on funds." Roxas released a yawn and stretched where he sat.

"Oh? And what were you up to the last couple months that you're so low?" Mira asked as she got up, dusting herself off before crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at the blonde.

Erza was staring at something that would answer the Takeover mage's question. "I think the answer is on the wall."

"Huh?" The white haired girl blinked before turning her gaze to Erza and then following the red head's gaze to what had once been a plain brick wall with some hooks in it. "What the..."

Indeed, the wall had taken some major changes since the last time the two girls had been there. It had been decorated... or maybe armed was a better term. A wide array of weapons were now hung on the wall. Some of them only ever heard of before, but now there they were hanging on a wall.

"A guy can't decorate?" Scratching the back of his head, Roxas walked over to the wall. The girls joined him to get a closer look.

"It's just a bit... odd to see _you_ collecting weapons. I mean, you have a weapon that can change for any situation." Mira pointed out, her eyes looking over the collection of weapons, pausing on the ones that caught her particular interest.

The blonde turned his gaze to the weapons, a thoughtful look in his eyes. "Well... these are special." A small, sad smile appeared on Roxas' face. "They were my family's."

"Oh." Erza shifted a little uneasily. "... You never talk about them."

"I think what tin can here means is, we thought you were trying to forget." Mira put in, elbowing Erza between the armored plates.

"Maybe I was. For a little while anyways." Roxas admitted before Erza could attack Mira. "But my fight with Laxus during the exams made me realize I won't forget... I think it was the shock to my back."

"What kind of family did you have Blondie?" The white haired girl raised a brow.

"A crazy one." He smirked slightly before pointing at the weapon set closest to him. "Larxene was the one that gave me a shock though."

"I'm curious now." Mira flashed a grin before walking over to look at the weapon set he was pointing at. "Since you're in a sharing mood, tell us about 'em."

There was a roll of the eyes but the blonde made no move to change the topic. "Larxene was the only girl. She used lightning magic and these were her signature knives, Foudre. Also the only girl in our group. Her nickname was Savage Nymph."

The knives in question were cross-shaped. Three small points formed the handle and were cyan at the tip and then bright yellow when they met. A band of cyan separated the blade from the rest of the weapon. One side of the blade was cyan and the other side was bright yellow, the two fading in together where the colors met. This was the appearance repeated in all eight knives.

"Hmm... I think I'd like her." Was the musing of Mira. That statement was actually probably true.

Roxas shuddered slightly at the thought of Mira and Larxene ever meeting before moving on to the next weapon, gesturing towards it.

Hung next to the knives was a scythe. It had a long pastel green handle with a small section of black and a small section of gold at the bottom with two gold rings near the top. At the top of the handle was an almost oval shaped rosy pink section of metal that was bladed at the edge that was black. There was a white X surrounded by gold towards the center that faded into a dark rosy pink. The X was attached to the oval plate which connected the handle to the main blade, which was also rosy pink with the bladed edge being black.

"... I thought you said Larxene was the only girl in your group." Erza murmured, staring at the weapon.

A chuckle escaped Roxas at the comment. "She was. This was Marluxia's weapon, the Graceful Dahlia. Marluxia's magic lied in flowers and he hated being mistaken for a woman. He also had pink hair which made things all the more difficult for him. We called him the Graceful Assassin."

Mira broke out into a fit of laughter at that. Even Erza had a small smirk of amusement.

"Next was Luxord." Roxas walked over to the next thing hung on the wall. Something that probably wouldn't normally be thought of as a weapon. "We called him the Gambler of Fate. No one could beat him in a game so he was in charge of the poker league. We were never sure where he was from but he had an accent. His magic focused on time manipulation. His weapon here is called Fair Game. Couldn't really call it fair though."

A deck of cards had somehow been hung on the wall with the card on top showing the design on the back of the cards. It was gray with a white edge. There was an odd symbol on the back, a white stylized cross that turned into the top of a heart at the bottom.

Between two large weapons, the cards were practically dwarfed. On the other side of Fair Game was what looked like an instrument of sorts. A guitar maybe? It was uniquely shaped like the symbol on the back of the cards. Dark blue in color and looked to be well polished. Someone must have cared about the instrument.

"This is Arpeggio, a sitar." Roxas gave them a meaningful look, as if knowing they didn't know what it was. "It was Demyx's weapon. Demyx was quite possibly the laziest of us all and he liked his music. His magic focused on water. We called him the Melodious Nocturne. He'd leave all the work to the water and sit back. All he had to do was pull the string of one of his sitars and you could get blasted by some water."

"Lazy but strong then... was he at least a good singer?" Mira raised a brow as they moved on to the next weapon.

Roxas merely rolled his eyes before looking at the next weapon. It went unnoticed that he clenched his fist. "These were Axel's weapons, Eternal Flames. If you couldn't guess by his weapons' name, he used fire in his magic. We called him the Flurry of Dancing Flames... After missions the two of us would get our favorite ice cream..." He closed his eyes, taking a breath as if trying to compose himself. "Older than me, but my best friend."

These weapons had a black plus shaped handle that reached out to connect to a small ring each. Running through all four rings was one larger ring. A spike pointed outward on each circle and one between the circles as well, amounting to a total of eight spikes. The inner edges of the rings were red while the rest was silver. There were two, making it a set of chakrams.

The girls seemed to pick up on the blonde's tension at the mention of Axel.

"So that's why you insist on getting ice cream after missions." Erza stated with a small smile.

"But what's this favorite you're talking about?" Mira raised a brow at the boy.

A smirk appeared on Roxas' face. "If I ever find it again I'll get you some."

Moving on to the next weapon, they found a rather heavyset looking weapon. It had a white handle with a gray spike for a pommel. The guard was a pale yellow half circle with four small notches on the rounded side. For the blade it was pale blue and started out thick but narrow that turned wider going up. There was three notches on either side of the blade. Two small diamonds decorated it, one where the blade met the guard and one before the first notch. Coming out of the end of the blade was the pale yellow top half of a cross that had pointed tips. Surrounding it was a blue and dark blue ring that had seven spikes.

"Saix used this weapon. I'm not entirely sure about his magic but he could derive power from the moon and release in in a berserk rage. Otherwise he usually had the emotional sense of a brick. We called him the Luna diviner. His weapon here is called Lunatic. Which was always a lot scarier when he was going berserk." It was hard to miss Roxas' shudder, suggesting the berserk state was nothing to ignore.

"Some kind of moon powered rage-a-holic then." Was Mira's accurate conclusion about Saix.

Erza was looking at the so-called weapon next to the claymore called Lunatic. "I'm more curious about the book on the wall."

"That was Zexion's main Lexicon, Book of Retribution." Roxas frowned slightly at the book. "He could conjure the most convincing illusions. I think he's the one I knew least about, rather quiet and hard to find. So we called him the Cloaked Schemer."

The book in question was leather bound and dark gray. What was becoming increasingly thought of as an iconic symbol of sorts for Roxas' family, the stylized crosses with the top half of a heart on the bottom, was emblazoned on the cover. There was three that met with the heart tops touching and were white in color. On the spine of the book was the roman numeral for six, VI, along with the apparent title Hallucination: Another Side.

"Sounds like he could be a dangerous opponent given the chance." Erza murmured, frowning at the book as well.

Mira joined in the group frowned. "Don't see why you two are getting worked up over a bookworm."

Roxas sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Hard to explain."

"Whatever, tell me about this huge weapon!" The weapon Mira pointed at was indeed huge. It was thicker than the claymore and possibly taller than the scythe.

"That, would be Skysplitter. The weapon of our Taciturn Stalwart, Lexaeus. Quieter than Zexion, but I knew him better... somewhat. He might not have been fast, but he was really strong and could swing that thing with ease. His magic had control over earth, but he usually tried to avoid using it." A thoughtful look crossed Roxas' face, as if recalling something.

For the handle it was a simple blue rod with a spike on both ends, it was roughly half as long at the blade itself. Coming out of the top of the handle was a massive blade that reached both over the handle and about the width of the handle up. The part of the blade over the handle was serrated. Towards the top of the blade it curled back and flayed out a bit. Most of the blade was black edged with red. On the back of the top of the handle was what might be a guard, square in shape, pale yellow in color with black lines on the corners and a thin red X on the top side.

Beside Skysplitter was a shield. At first it appeared as an upside-down teardrop, but with two oval chunks taken out of both sides and a closer look, it bore some resemblance to the stylized cross several of the weapons so far had displayed. It was blue lined with silver. Along the curved top was five spike, two spikes on the side and one large in the middle.

"Next to Skysplitter is Frozen Pride. Vexen's shield. He was a scientist and his magic specialized in ice. We called him the Chill Academic. A little creepy sometimes. Known for his experiments more or less." Roxas shrugged, clearly not the biggest fan.

"Sounds like a creep." Mira put in nonchalantly, crossing her arms as they moved to the next set of weapons.

"Xaldin is next. He used Wind Magic which helped him use six lances at once." Roxas gestured towards the set of six lances that was the next weapon. "These specific lances are called Lindworm. We called him the Whirlwind Lancer. Could be a little manipulative at times but aside from that he wasn't too bad."

The center section of the shaft was periwinkle with the ends being purple, the different colored sections being separated by small gold bands. One end had the top half of the reoccurring stylized cross in purple. On the other end were three spikes, two going down and one going back baring some resemblance to a dragon's head maybe.

Beside the Lindworm lances was a pair of unusual weapons, arrowguns. A purple ring with four spikes coming out, one long than the other three. The longest turning to a light lavender and ending in white, functioning as the barrel of the weapon. For the handle, the color was purple and there was a thick curved arc of the same color for the guard. Six light purple diamond-shaped spikes with silver edges lined the guard.

"Finally, we have Xigbar's arrowguns, Sharpshooter. Xigbar could use Spatial Magic, which he often used to pop up behind people. Had an eye patch, thought he was a pirate when we met." A small chuckle escaped Roxas. "We called him Freeshooter. Had a nickname for just about everyone."

"Like you do?" The white haired girl raised a brow at the blonde.

It was hard to miss the smirk on Roxas' face. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"So that's eleven... you make twelve... but wasn't there thirteen of you?" Erza tilted her head slightly, looking next to Sharpshooter as if expecting to see another weapon.

"Yeah. There was thirteen. The one in charge of things was Xemnas. He was able to form his weapons, Ethereal Blades, from nothing." As if knowing what Erza was about to say, the blonde added, "It wasn't Requip or any variation of it." Roxas smiled faintly, as if a good memory had just resurfaced. "He saved each of us, one way or another. If it weren't for him, I would've died days after being born."

The girls looked at their friend in shock. Had Roxas been born ill or something?

Before they could ask however, Roxas shook his head and turned his attention back to them. "Anyways, why'd you two come all the way up here anyways?"

They blinked at the sudden change of subject. Then they seemed to recall their reason for making the climb to the top of the clock tower in the first place.

"We were wondering when you were going to take your first official S-ranked job." There was a deadly undertone to Erza's voice.

"... You want to know which of you I'll take with, right?" Roxas raised a brow at the girls. He was no fool, they both wanted to go on an official S-ranked mission. The one he and Erza had taken didn't count since the rank had gone up after they took the mission.

"Yeah, it'll be me, right?" Mira leaned on his shoulder, putting a bit too much pressure to be a casual gesture.

"I think you mean me." Erza grabbed Mira's arm and pulled her away from Roxas. Things were about to escalate into a fight if he didn't say something.

"Both or neither."

Those three simple words gained confused looks from the two monstrous rivals.

He sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Either both of you go with, or neither of you can go. I already have a request picked out. But I'm not picking which of you two can or can't go. That'd be like picking a side of the triangle."

"Wait... so you're going to make me go on a mission with _her_ or not at all...?" A glare was sent at Erza as Mira spoke. One of her eyes twitched at the ultimatum.

"You would make us work together...?" Venomous couldn't even begin to describe the glare Erza was sending to Mira.

Even so, one word came out of both girls at the same time. For once the pair agreeing on something.

"UNFORGIVABLE!"

The blonde narrowed his eyes at the hostile girls before holding out his right hand. "Oblivion: Midnight Roar." There was a familiar cloud of shadow in his hand that changed slightly to have an orange and silver tint to it before solidifying into a Keyblade.

This one had an orange handle surrounded by a circular black guard. It had a smooth silver shaft that ended with a black point. Below the black point was a sideways black fleur-de-lis, with a single spike on the back and three on the front to form the key's teeth. The front spikes arrange so one pointed out straight with the other two curving on either side like a bird's wings.

"I'll kick you both off the ledge if you start something in here!"

That was the day Erza and Mira learned not to anger Roxas.

* * *

><p><em>Later<em>

"So, you two ready to go?" Roxas asked, sitting in one of the armchairs of his apartment as Erza and Mira returned. After seeing his rage the pair had agreed to go on a mission together for once. A terrifying thought all things considered.

"Yeah. Now, will you tell us where we're going?" Mira crossed her arms, looking at the blonde expectantly.

"Did you get approved for this mission even?" Erza raised a brow, wanting to make sure they weren't breaking any rules.

"I ran it by Midget last night during the party." The blonde offered a small shrug. "There's a dark mage trying to take control of a city, the mission is to stop them before any serious damage can occur."

"And this city is...?" There was an impatient tapping of the foot from Mira.

"What I used to call home. It's a place called Dark City, which is a train, a boat and a long walk away from here normally." He stood up and walked over to the pair. Seemingly uncaring of the long distance they would be going.

"Wait, does that mean out of Fiore? How long will this mission take? I can't leave Elfman and Lisanna alone for too long." It was hard to miss the concern Mira displayed, which was rare for the girl some had started calling referring to as Demon.

There was a raised brow from Roxas, but also an understanding smile. "Out of Fiore, yes. But we won't be gone long, I have a quicker way of getting around now. At most it should only take a few days."

"A quicker way?" Erza echoed confusedly, this being the first she'd ever heard of a quicker way to travel.

"I finally got the hang of one of my family's skills while I was gone." Roxas turned his back to the girls and raised his right hand up in front of him. A small black and violet magic circle appearing at his fingertips only to condense itself and seemingly stretching to the floor. Once the strange substance touched the floor it expanded in width until it was large enough for them to step through easily.

Once it had stopped expanding, it seemed to solidify somewhat. Its center becoming a swirling mass of black and violet while the edges were framed with what seemed like a flickering black flame. Initially it came across as ominous.

"This, is what we called a Dark Corridor. Don't let the name or appearance fool you though, it isn't actually that bad." The blonde explained, pausing to give the girls a moment to let this sink in. For a moment they'd become rather guarded at the sight. "This is how we'd travel long distances, as long as we knew the place we were going to."

For a long moment, neither girl said a word. They'd seen Roxas use a variety of magic in the past but most of that had been with a Keyblade and weren't quite like this. It was almost reminiscent of when he began to summon a Keyblade and it started with a kind of shadowy fire. This was Roxas however, they knew him.

"Dark mage, Dark City, Dark Corridor, what's next? Dark Road?" Mira joked, trying to lessen the tension a bit.

"You're sure this is safe?" Erza raised a brow, a little bit wary.

"I went through Dark Corridors all the time when I was younger, if it didn't hurt me then it won't hurt you now. We won't be in there for long, it only gets dangerous if you stay in it too long." Roxas assured, already about to take a step into the Dark Corridor.

"What happens if we stay in too long?" The red head raised a brow.

"It'll sap your magic until there's no escape. But it takes days for that to happen, even for someone with the lowest levels of magic." With a shrug and not even a glance back the blonde stepped all the way into the Dark Corridor.

The girls hesitated before following.

Inside the Dark Corridor was quite an amazing sight. It was like they were standing on glass or something in a tunnel, a tunnel with no clear walls. Instead of walls it was just a cloud like substance, slowly swirling around them. Where they were it the moment, it was a brilliant gold in color, fading to dark blue at the end. A surprisingly beautiful sight.

Following their blonde companion, they eventually exited the tunnel and found themselves suddenly in a whole new environment.

Now they could understand why it was called Dark City.

They now stood on a black paved street surrounded by some of the tallest of buildings. There wasn't much variation in color, the buildings mostly being dark purple or dark blue. One of the things to truly catch their eyes was the floating glowing signs, the only real apparent color and they were bright. Appearing as advertisements of some sort.

The sky above was dark and cloudy with hints of red and purple mixed in the nearly black clouds. Peeking out over the buildings and standing in contrast to the clouds however, appeared to be some sort of building. They could just make out the tops of some old-fashioned looking towers that were light gray, almost white actually. Aside from that however, not much else could be seen of the likely massive structure.

"Well, I get why it's called Dark City now." Mira stated after a moment's silence.

"The streets seem so empty." Erza murmured, looking about the deserted streets.

Roxas sighed, scratching the back of his head as he too looked around. "Most of Dark City's residents don't come out much. With all that's been going on, it's only made attendance worse." Taking a few steps forward, he finished that line of thought to himself, _"And they won't want to come out if someone like _me _is here."_

With her gaze traveling about their surroundings, one problem seemed apparent to Mira. "Where do we find this dark mage?"

In answer, Roxas pointed up towards the pale towers. "If one wants to rule Dark City, they need to take control of that."

Without another word the trio began the trek through the city. There were so many twists and turns, if Roxas weren't there they'd be lost already. How the blonde had remembered his way through the city after so many years was a complete mystery.

"That sky doesn't look natural." Was Erza's comment after maybe half an hour of silence.

"It isn't." Roxas admitted, pausing for a moment, forcing the girls to pause too. "We got some time before we get there, if you want I can tell you about the legend of Dark City."

"Beats this silence." The Takeover mage crossed her arms looking around the empty streets. Her red headed rival nodded in agreement to her words.

"... Alright." The Keyblade user took a step forward before pausing again and looking back at them. "But whatever you do, don't repeat any of this, especially to Natsu."

* * *

><p><strong>Sheesh, this is long. So, Roxas collected some weapons while he was gone and we finally got to hear the names of his family. Then Mira and Erza got to see his rage and agreed to go on a mission together. We also got to see the first use of a signature ability, the Dark Corridor which took them to the deserted and gloomy looking Dark City. Their mission, to take out a dark mage trying to take control.<strong>

**I avoid using OC's as much as possible, even using the most obscure of characters when it comes to fanfiction. So, who do you think this mysterious dark mage is? (For all we know its Merlin.) What is it Roxas doesn't want Natsu finding out about? Where are the residents of Dark City?**

**So, feedback of any form is appreciated. I know this chapter might have been a bit boring, but we got a story, a fight and something awesome at the end in the next chapter. I've been eagerly awaiting this "something awesome" and hope you'll find it awesome too.**


	9. Oblivion

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Fairy Tail or any of the affiliates aside from this fanfic. Please don't sue me, I only have forty one dollars and a drawing of a Tangletales(Tangela and Ninetales fusion, don't ask).**

**I know what you might be thinking, it's not Friday or after Friday. So what's with the update on Thursday? Well, for one I'm going to be without laptop until late Sunday. Two, I've spent my nineteenth level up (birthday) today doing something I love, writing, and I had this monster of a chapter ready before I left.**

**Ultimate Black Ace-Agreed, too early in the story for Xehanort and only if the Organization appears will Xemnas appear. Pete is just a punching bag. It is a Disney villain however. The book Roxas has hasn't played a notable part yet, which would suggest they don't even know he has it or haven't given it much thought. Also, glad you caught the "trio" reference. Roxas is to Erza and Mira what Erza is to Natsu and Gray at this point in time.**

**TheAbsolutistsCreed-I've been trying to find the balance with that kind of thing. I haven't been particularly successful yet, but it is something I'm working on. Thanks for giving me your thoughts.**

**AirBorne3-We'll see. ;)**

**Dragon Silhouette-Well, Xemnas' part in saving Roxas will be touched upon in the Edolas arc, which is quite a ways away. Unfortunately, since sea-salt ice cream is a specialty in Twilight Town and Roxas probably hasn't been there for years, he's been deprived. *Is so cruel for keeping a boy from his ice cream.* Chernabog, interesting thought. Wouldn't put it past myself if it weren't for a fact I know who it is. So you think I wouldn't make Merlin or Yen Sid evil? Then dragon connection? Perhaps. We'll eventually learn about the residents. My "something awesome" is not a KH character. It is magic.**

**Pedro52-Glad you find this interesting.**

**fyrestarr-Well, we'll see if you're right soon.**

**blarg7865-Evil Winnie the Pooh? Don't put it past me, that could happen. Dual wielding? Maybe. There is a line of thought involving forms but it isn't anything I can confirm or deny at this time. The same applies to summons. As for branching away into Fullmetal Alchemist, Star Wars and the like, I'm focusing on what Kingdom Hearts has first. Once the basics are out of the way there is a high chance we'll start seeing other things like a few Marvel characters popping up during the Grand Magic Games or something (just an example).  
>You know, I actually have that opened in a tab right now because a couple other people have suggested I read it. I've been meaning to read it but haven't had time to read anything lengthy lately between classes, writing, a job hunt and life.<br>Finally, I'm glad you like this fic. I'm not too crazy for the pairing centered stories so most of my energy goes into developing a plot.**

**Loki921-Ah yes, Tripple M. Not sure how she'd react to this version of Dark City with the legend about it here though.**

**Now onward, to a tale of the past, an encounter with a villain and "something awesome" (at least in my opinion) near the end.**

* * *

><p>Once more Erza felt her suspicions of the blonde rising. Why didn't he want the story being told to the others? Especially Natsu of all people?<p>

"Legend says that Dark City was once a place of never ending light. At first it was a beautiful place where everyone was happy. However, where there was light, there should also be darkness. That's the only way to be equivalent. But where could darkness fester in a place of constant light?" Roxas was silent for a moment, as if expecting them to answer him. He kept his focus on the way ahead of them.

Erza hesitated to answer, but only one logical conclusion could reach her. "It can't... can it?" Her eyes traveled around, absently noting how not even liter occupied the empty streets.

The blonde grimaced, pausing and leaning a hand against the nearby wall as he looked about the deserted city. "But it can." He turned to meet her eyes, a serious look in his blue depths. "In the heart." Roxas lifted a hand and placed it above his own heart. He paused a moment before starting to lead the way again.

"... What happened to turn a city of light into... this?" Mira asked with a large measure of hesitance. Both she and Erza knew she probably didn't want an answer, but they both had to know. Surely a light so bright couldn't be snuffed out so easily...

"The people grew protective and greedy of their light and looked for any way to keep it for themselves. Eventually, they found something that could work." He glanced back at them, the look in his eyes was of both worry and hesitation.

Something told Erza there was a good reason for him not wanting them to tell whatever it is that the solution was. Maybe she could trust Roxas if his reason proved well-intended though. One part of her really wanted to trust the blonde.

Roxas mumbled something before looking down at the sidewalk as they walked. "There was a dragon called Buranku. A dragon of nothing. Strong against both the light and dark because he lay between the two opposites. He was a pacifist however. It was said a single one of his scales could stand alone between the two elements. Somehow, the people managed to catch Buranku. They would use his scales to construct a wall around the City of Light and once they were done, killed him."

Now it was perfectly understandable why Roxas wouldn't want this part of the story getting out. It also might explain why Roxas believed in dragons and why of all people, the last he wanted to know about the story was Natsu. "Over the years, darkness built up on the outside of the wall. The people inside had no idea however, they were ignorant and the darkness within them only continued to grow."

Erza could already tell where this was going. Something can only hold out so long before it gives. Her armors were a good example, hit them enough and they will crack under the pressure.

"What no one realized... was that Buranku wasn't dead." The blonde paused once more, looking up towards the gray-white towers that stood alone against the unnaturally dark sky. He shook his head before continuing.

"He wasn't dead...? But... you said they killed him..." Mira murmured, looking at her blonde companion with confusion.

"They thought they did. Maybe they did. Either way, he was alive in the end. It could've been something to do with him being the nothing dragon." Roxas seemed to consider this a moment before shaking his head again. "He had absorbed the energy from the light inside and the darkness outside until he was strong enough to rebel."

Erza could feel her throat turning dry. The red head had a feeling she knew what happened, at least somewhat. Those people had angered a dragon with power over light and dark.

"Buranku had become the wall. When he started to move for the first time in ages, the wall itself was restructured. This city is surrounded by a massive canyon as a result. The wall had turned into a dragon as big as a _castle_. Darkness flooded into the City of Light. A once pacifistic dragon, turned into something of a blood-thirsty demon. In a day, the whole city had turned red and black." As he spoke, there was just the slightest shake in his voice. Something Roxas never had done in the past.

"But the sight didn't satisfy the dragon. He was still angry with humanity. Buranku, would've gone on to destroy everything if a mage hadn't come in time to stop the rampage. A powerful mage who was able to seal Buranku." With those words, Roxas came to a stop at what appeared to be a massive hole in the middle of the city. Which was the only sign such a conflict might have ever taken place. "And here, is where the Dragon of Nothing is sealed, in the form of a castle." He gestured upwards, and the sight left Erza and Mira completely shocked.

A castle, a massive castle, was floating above the hole. She had figured there was a large building in the middle of the city, but not this big, let alone floating. It was a massive and somewhat warped looking structure. There was no visible way to enter however, so what were they doing there?

"After all this time, he still bears a grudge against the city. Even though he's sealed he's still able to manipulate light and dark, that's why it is called Dark City." Roxas sighed, looking up at the dragon turned castle and the dark sky above. "Erza, Mira, meet Buranku. Also known as the Castle That Never Was."

There was no clear bottom to the structure. Towers seemed to go both up and down with only a select few at an angle. Some of them were connected by pipe-like protrusions. Another thing apparent however, was that no clear entrance was visible. Let alone a way to get to the castle.

Mira had a deep frown on her face. "So... I guess this all means if someone takes control of the castle... they get control over the magic power it has...?"

The blonde's only answer was a nod.

"How do we get up there to stop this dark mage?" Erza crossed her arms looking around.

"Possibly the easiest thing to do today." Roxas stepped up to the edge of the massive crater and knelt down, putting his hands out. "Just need to hit a certain magical frequency..." A faint glow seemed to emanate from his hands. He stayed like that for several minutes, brows furrowed in concentration.

The sudden appearance of a glowing bridge startled both Mira and Erza. Roxas just grinned and stood up straight. Without waiting he went ahead and lead the way onto the bridge. Both girls hesitated, it looked like they could just fall right through the bridge. Yet Roxas stood on it as if it was completely normal to be standing on a glowing bridge that materialized out of nowhere.

It took a moment for Roxas to realize he was being followed and when he did he looked back at the pair. "Well? You coming?"

"You've been here before I take it...?" Erza asked, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"I lived here. Xemnas wanted to keep this power out of the wrong hands." He spoke as if it should've been obvious. Roxas offered a shrug before continuing along the bridge.

The girls hesitated a bit longer before following.

* * *

><p>The interior of the castle was the same as the exterior. A gray white in color with the occasional window which only showed the dark sky and the city below. Roxas had warned them to stay close because it was easy to get lost. It was easy to see given that almost everything looked the same. Both girls couldn't help but wonder what his childhood had been like, growing up in a castle where everything looks the same with what sounded like twelve older and powerful mages.<p>

It couldn't have been easy.

They'd been journeying through the the castle for what might've been hours now for all they knew. There wasn't a single clock they'd encountered in all this time. At times they'd come across some particularly odd architecture, such as overlapping bridges that reached over what appeared to be an abyss. Most recently they'd gone through what appeared to be an indoor graveyard and then a place of platforms and invisible pathways that connect said platforms.

A heavy silence had been hanging over them for a while. Mira was getting irritated from it. "So where are we going anyways?"

"The Alter of Naught. One of the highest points of the castle." Was the simple answer Roxas gave.

"We can't just use another of those corridor things? The white haired girl raised a brow.

"I'm still new to using it. I haven't really mastered it yet so it takes a lot of magic and I can only do general location destinations. That's why we ended up in the streets of Dark City instead of already here in the castle." It was a reasonable explanation. Magic involving transportation tended to be tricky.

"I see. I had assumed there was some kind of charm preventing transportation into... what did you call this again? The Castle That Never Was?" Erza crossed her arms, wanting to keep the conversation going. "What's with the name anyways?"

"The Castle That Never Was, was something many wished never was. They didn't want it to exist..." Roxas paused in his walk, forcing the girls to stop as well. They'd just stepped out to a walkway that lead to a staircase going up. The dark sky plainly visible above. He glanced at the two with a look that told them to be careful before heading for the stairs.

The girls went silent and followed, tensing slightly to prepare for whatever might greet them.

They didn't expect to see a woman cloaked in black, let alone a woman with green skin. She had sickly yellow eyes and black horn-like protrusions were coming out of her covered head. In her left hand was a golden staff with a green orb on top, where a sickly looking raven was perched.

The area around her was circular and framed with a low wall that could never stop someone from falling over the edge. A few spikes stood around the circle. It almost looked like something was meant to appear between two spikes in particular, where the dark sky shrouded everything from view.

"Oh? What's this? Some rabble from the city?" The woman asked snidely, looking terribly unimpressed.

Roxas had a scowl on his face. "You're trespassing." He held out his right hand. "Oblivion: Glimpse of Darkness." The Keyblade appeared in his hand on command.

The fact that Roxas wasn't up for banter and had gone straight to summoning a Keyblade had alarm bells going off in Mira and Erza's minds. He was dead serious now, possibly because of the green skinned woman's trespassing of his childhood home. Either way, it put the girls on guard as they too got ready to fight.

A large purple magic circle appeared above Mira. "Satan Soul!" The purple magic circle seemed to collapse over her and when it was gone, she'd taken a drastic change in appearance.

Mira now wore a dark magenta body suit with a few gold markings. The only parts of her body not covered were her forearms and the neck up. Her forearms were now thicker and scaly with what looked like dark gold gauntlets. There were black cracks on her face as well and her hair had come loose, being blown upwards by the sheer amount of magic that the girl was exuding. She even had a large pair of bat-like wings coming out of her back as well as a large lizard tail.

Erza used her Requip Magic to trade her usual armor for something more battle appropriate. A soft glow encased her body before disappearing to reveal a full-body armor that was dark gray in color with a large black Fairy Tail mark on the back. This particular armor didn't have a name but it came equipped with a broadsword hanging on the side which she immediately removed, ready for a fight.

"Oh?" The green woman looked mildly surprised but more so amused. "A Keyblade user and friends?" She tilted her head as if pondering something as she focused on the aggravated looking blonde. "I see, you were on of _them_, weren't you?"

Roxas just sent a glare at her that would have had many shaking where they stood. But she remained unaffected and seemingly indifferent.

"I you think you can defeat me, Maleficent, then you kiddies have horribly underestimated me." She raised her arms and as she did a sickly yellow looking magic circle formed on her staff and with her arms, the thickest thorny vines the young Fairy Tail mages had ever seen erupted from the ground.

It was only their well-trained reflexes that allowed them to avoid the thorns. Mira flying up above the sudden forest of thorns. Roxas and Erza were both forced to jump around to avoid the thorns until the stopped growing. But just when they stopped the thorns started growing with excessive speed forcing the pair trapped in the thorns to hack at the thorns with their weapons.

This left Mira to become the dark mage's focus who raised her staff and began sending out blasts and lashes of green fire that the white haired mage struggled to avoid. It was the Takeover mage's mistake of a millisecond taken to look at the thorns to check on her companions that cost her. She took a particularly large blast of green fire that sent her crashing down somewhere into the thorns.

"Mira!" Erza made the mistake of looking back to check on Mira as she escaped the thorny forest Maleficent created.

Maleficent took advantage of the red head's distraction and aimed a blast of green fire at the girl. Roxas intervened however as he too escaped the thorns, rushing to Erza's side and raising Glimpse of Darkness to block the attack.

"Stay focused!" The blonde snapped out in warning, lowering his Keyblade to get a clear view of the dark mage.

"What're we going to do? She's too strong." She shook her head, forcing her gaze back on the task at hand.

Roxas was silent for a moment before glancing at Erza out of the corner of his eye. "We'll have to end this quick. There is that one thing."

The armored girl frowned at the thought. "We've never been able to pull that off."

"Don't we always do better when in a pinch?" He offered a small smirk, allowing his Keyblade to disappear before offering his right hand. There were some minor burns on his hand where his hand hadn't been protected from the fire.

He wasn't wrong, when in a difficult situation they'd always come through in the past somehow. This was something they'd tried in training in the past but never had it been successful. That didn't stop her from taking his hand with her left, leaving space between both hands. They had nothing left to lose, if Maleficent won then she'd have control over Dark City, a source of immense dark magical energy.

The two began their charge at Maleficent as they summoned their respective weapons and in Erza's case, armor.

"Requip!" Erza's body became engulfed in a light golden glow as she switched armors. When the glow faded she now donned an armor that was black in color and was decorated with large spikes, including a necklace and two that came out of her hair. It was a black battle dress with long sleeves that reached to glove her hands and a pair of boots that reached almost all the way up her legs constructed with particularly strong metal. Her hair was spiked outward slightly with a little covering her right eye. There was a devilish shadow somewhat obscuring the upper half of her face.

She was summoning her matching weapon at the same time Roxas called a new Keyblade. This, was her Purgatory Armor.

"Oblivion!" Roxas called, adding no extra name as the cloud of show appeared in his hand and took form but before the true form could be seen Erza's weapon had also come into sight. Both weapons appearing in their interlocked hands at the same time.

For a second, the two weapons seemed to resist appearing in the same place at the same time. The pair had to tighten their grip on each other's hands without crushing the space between. Shadow of the forming Keyblade and faint light of Erza's weapon seemed to twist together before taking one solid form.

The weapon was as large as either of them standing. Thick and black with four large bat wings forming the hand guard, two on top and two below. Connected to the tip of each wing was a thick silver chain. Going along the shaft was a series of black spikes until reaching the head of the weapon. It was reminiscent of a dragon's head, two ears and a final spike between the two giving the back of the head a three pointed crown appearance. Two purple gems marked the eyes and it even had an open mouth with sharp teeth.

Their speed seemed enhanced, Maleficent hardly had time to take a step back.

A sphere of violet energy took form at the dragon-like weapon's mouth. It swirled about violently, kicking up a storm of wind.

In unison the two attackers cried out the name of the attack as it made contact. "Oblivion of Purgatory!"

The sphere of violent violet energy made contact with Maleficent's chest. For a moment the energy seemed to expand before bursting. With the burst, the winds that had started with the apparent Unison Raid began turned to fierce levels of intensity. Then, before events could even be registered the winds seemed to center in back to where the sphere had been, pulling the energy that had been escaping with the explosion back into place. Only now the sphere was darker with streaks of red swirling about.

Neither Mira nor Erza seemed to catch what happened but Roxas and Maleficent definitely did. The sphere seemed to sink into the woman's skin, right where the heart was. With the sphere's disappearance, everything seemed to come to a halt. Winds suddenly non existent as Erza and Roxas watched the results of the attack from where they had landed after the attack, back where they'd been when they began the attack.

Maleficent seemed to shake, her staff falling out of her grasp and to the ground. Her hands shakily reached up to where the sphere had been and pressed down. It was as if she were trying to stop something from escaping. Eyes full of disbelief, she stared at the blonde before taking a few stumbling steps back. "You..."

Their weapons had separated at some point revealing the original forms. The thorns Maleficent had brought up receded into the ground and it was like they'd never been there, revealing Mira to be injured and unconscious but otherwise alright.

Erza's was a gray weapon even larger than the one created from the fusion. It was lined with black spikes and practically screamed danger.

Roxas' weapon, the Keyblade Oblivion had a ridged gray handle with a pair of black bat wings circling to form the hand guard. Between the two wings where the handle met the shaft was a violet diamond. The shaft itself was black with a silver chain design along the length. For the teeth of the large key was a shape that seemed to resemble the kanji for darkness (闇).

One only had a brief moment to look before it disappeared. Gripping his right hand which had wielded Oblivion as if in pain, the blonde glared at the woman. "Get out of here before you lose it."

For a second, the pupils of her yellow eyes seemed to turn to slits. Then she shakily reached out with her left hand, her staff levitating back into her grasp. "I won't be forgetting this, Thirteen." With those parting words, shadow seemed to engulf her and when the shadows were gone, there was no sign she'd been there.

* * *

><p><strong>So, it was Maleficent after all. Given that she didn't turn into a dragon, that would suggest she'll turn up again eventually. Maleficent trying to take over the castle was kind of a reference to what she wanted to do in Kingdom Hearts II.<strong>

**We now have an idea of why Roxas believes in dragons. Buranku, light, dark, a castle. Quite a grim tale and Maleficent was likely trying to takeover because of the "never ending light" or because of the darkness that practically makes the city and hides the light... unless the light isn't even there anymore. Or perhaps she planned to free Buranku and try to control him only for it all to backfire...**

**The "something awesome" being a Unison Raid titled Oblivion of Purgatory. My personal favorite when it comes to this chapter. Hope you guys liked it.**

**Next chapter is Oathkeeper, where some Kingdom Hearts exclusive things or people or both will be appearing. Some questions that have been asked will be answered next chapter. The Keyblade master mentioned very briefly by Makarov in Missing Ache will finally get a name for instance.**

**Well, let me know what you all thought of this**


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